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CONTENTS 16

HOTMESS SPORTS CELEBRATES FIVE YEARS IN NASHVILLE

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ANDY & ANDERSON’S SHOW COMES TO THE RYMAN

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ROCK THIS COUNTRY EXHIBIT WOWS FANS COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME FEATURE THROUGH JULY 2018

One recent new exhibit at The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum really has country fans buzzing with its newest exhibit, Shania Twain: Rock This Country. This year-long exhibition documents the life and career of five-time Grammy winner Shania Twain in epic detail.

The exhibit follows the evolution of Twain’s career from her early days performing in Canadian bars to her recent appearance at the Stagecoach Festival in California. Twain has sold more albums than any other female country artist in history. Successful titles include her platinum-selling debut, Shania Twain; her Grammy-winning, double diamond-selling (RIAA certification for 20 million units) The Woman in Me; the top-selling album in history by a female country artist, Come on Over, and Twain’s third consecutive diamond-selling album release, UP! Twain is set to release NOW, her fifth full-length album on Mercury Nashville and her first album since 2002, on September 29. The album’s lead single, “Life’s About to Get Good”, premiered today on country radio platforms around the globe.

“Shania Twain’s impact on country music is undeniable,” said museum CEO Kyle Young. “Her message of female empowerment and dynamic pop sound electrified country music. Her continued influence is evidenced by artists like Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, and Kelsea Ballerini. We are pleased to feature Ms. Twain in this career-spanning exhibit.”

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Shania Twain: Rock This Country exhibition highlights include: • Hooded leather coat with fur trim and fringe, and furtrimmed boots with Native American beadwork, worn on the cover of her self-titled 1993 debut album • Complete ensemble, including top hat, from 1999 music video for “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”

• Marc Bouwer leopard-print crop top and matching pants worn during Come On Over Tour (1998–99) • Marc Bouwer futuristic princess outfit, with faux-leather coat; diamond and rhinestone earrings; velvet bra and skirt embellished with diamonds and rhinestones; belt with rhinestones and beads; and patent leather and suede boots, worn for her Super Bowl XXXVII halftime performance (2003) • Outfit worn by Twain for her Stagecoach performance, including black top with multiple tiers of fringe, a body suit with fringe, crochet-pattern pants, and pumps, April 2017 • Grammys for Best Country Song, “You’re Still the One” (1998); Best Country Song, “Come One Over” (1999); Best Female Country Vocal Performance, “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” (1999) With an unduplicated collection of more than 2.5 million artifacts, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum celebrates its fiftieth anniversary in 2017. Twain’s exhibition follows the opening of an exhibit on contemporary superstar Jason Aldean. Upcoming subjects include Loretta Lynn and country music couple Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.

For more information on this exhibit and other subjects of interest, visit countrymusichalloffame.org.

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THE MOCKINGBIRD NASHVILLE

CRAIG AMMON

About 24 hours before The Mockingbird Nashville hosts their first pre-opening event, both floors of the modern, up-scale diner are a cacophony of activity. And surprising good cheer. As a small construction crew and a team of kitchen staff and servers attend to last-minute details, co-creators and husbands Mikey Corona and Brian Riggenbach seem relaxed and happy.

It’s Riggenbach’s birthday, and a friend appears with a beautiful vase of flowers for the occasion. Corona says he’ll find ‘just the right spot’ to display them for their upcoming events.

They talk and laugh and discuss the dishes they are preparing for a few minutes before their friend departs. Then they happily give more of their time for this interview.

Riggenbach and Corona have established themselves already. Their very successful pop-up concept Yo Soy Underground Supper Club in Chicago has run for last twelve years. And Riggenbach received national attention when he was named “Chopped Champion” on The Food Network’s popular show “Chopped” two years ago. And now they have

moved from Chicago to Nashville to build their first brick-andmortar restaurant, The Mockingbird Nashville.

Their personalities complement each other well as they tell their story. Riggenbach is quietly charming as he describes their inspired southern-meets-international fare. He grins as he reveals the playful, pun-filled names of their dishes. Corona is more expressive, enthusiastically telling the story of how they landed in Nashville, and the journey of the last year.

Hiring construction crews and securing permits in a fastgrowing city has been a challenge. Even finding available, quality kitchen and service staff in a small city known for its many excellent restaurants was a big effort that Riggenbach and Corona tackled each day together.

“Working as a couple on a project like this has been both a blessing and a curse,” says Corona. “Of course we love working together. But when you have a rough day at work, it’s nice to come home to a partner that can support and encourage you.

But when you’re working together, you’ve had the same bad day.” But their efforts paid off as the reality of The Mockingbird

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Nashville took shape around them.

The journey to Music City began when long-time friend and “Chopped” judge Maneet Chauhan suggested they partner on a venture together. Chauhan is an established local restaurateur, with the Chauhan Ale & Masala House in Nashville and Mantra Artisan Ales brewery in Franklin. Last summer Chauhan took them on a culinary tour of Nashville, and they explored all the best restaurants the city has to offer. On the last day, she brought them back to the spot adjacent to Chauhan Ale & Masala House (which was just a construction zone at the time) and they discussed building their first restaurant there.

Corona says, “We planned on coming down here for a couple of months to get the restaurant started, then head back to Chicago and commute back and forth every few weeks.” He continues with a laugh, “But that was a hard ‘No,’ from Maneet.”

Chauhan explained that the Nashville community might not embrace a new restaurant whose co-creators and head chef were managing the venture from afar. “And besides,” Corona says, “we’d always dreamed of opening a real restaurant. This is our baby. We didn’t like the idea of leaving it.” So, they packed up and moved here about a year ago.

“We were wary at first about moving to the South as a gay couple,” says Corona. “Nashville’s culture is very different from Chicago. But we have surrounded ourselves with people that are supportive of us.” They made a lot of friends here, and soon after, felt that ‘big hug’ from the Nashville community at large, and our LGBT community in particular.

“We think it’s important, especially here in the South, to support other LGBTfriendly businesses that support our community, and us,” says Corona. They joined the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce soon after moving here, and found some great partners among its members.

Riggenbach says that The Mockingbird Nashville will continue their theme of playing with international flavors, combining them with southern comfort foods and providing their own creative twist on American diner

standards. They will have a set menu, but will rotate dishes seasonally. He notes, “One great thing about Tennessee is that we have all four seasons, and our cuisine can reflect that seasonality.”

And yes, they’ve experimented with their own version of Nashville’s iconic hot chicken dish, which they’ll likely feature weekly as one of their Blue Plate Specials.

Riggenbach resisted the urge to describe the dish in detail. “It will be a surprise,” he said. To which Corona replied, “But trust me, it’s amazing!”

The next day at their pre-opening event, The Mockingbird Nashville has been transformed from the day before. It looks beautiful. Servers float through the crowd offering samples of several dishes.

The bartenders are chatting with their guests as they make their signature craft cocktails. Every single one of the servers and bartenders (and of course Corona, Riggenbach, and Chauhan) are all smiles, exuding Nashville charm. They are eager to welcome guests, describe the dishes in seductive detail, and invite us to sample more. They make it look so effortless.

They offer tastes of several dishes they will feature on the menu. Each has their signature twist on a recognizable favorite. And each has its own clever

name that reveals the good humor and charm of its creators. And each is sensational! Among the feature dishes were: What’s Kraken – octopus, chorizo, and black sesame spread on toast Rice Rice Baby – pimento cheese arancini Don’t Worry Brie Happy – grilled cheese, brie, jalapeno jam, and chimichurri The Bird is the Word – Chicken Fried Chicken with salsa verde mashed potato and chorizo white gravy The Mockingbird Nashville opened to the public August 14th. For a detailed menu, and to make reservations, please visit their mockingbirdnashville.com.

The Nashville LGBT Chamber is a professional and consistent resource to find businesses who are inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and ally customers and clients. The Chamber directory at www.nashvillelgbtchamber. org/list will help you find The Mockingbird and other LGBT-friendly businesses and organizations.

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SEPTEMBER 2017

NASHVILLE LOSES A LGBT LEADER AND FRIEND

EXCERPTS FROM A EULOGY FOR RODNEY LYLE BRAGG STEVEN DAVISON

[Rodney Lyle Bragg] was my friend for more than 27 years. I am honored to be able to memorialize a man so loved and respected by so many in our community…

I first met Rod in 1990. He was hired to be the pastor of The Metropolitan Community Church here in Nashville. My former partner and I drove to Pittsburgh and loaded Rod’s things in a moving truck and physically moved him to Nashville. When we arrived at the home he rented, many members of the congregation were there to greet him with food and hugs and help him unload the truck. That was Rod’s welcome to Nashville.

Rod was a dedicated pastor. I have seen him officiate at weddings, give eulogies at memorial services, and deliver Sunday messages that were always respectful, encouraging, and reassuring. Never shaming.

Never judgmental.

After arriving in Nashville, Rod became a public advocate for LGBT rights. He helped coordinate and participate in one of the first gay pride marches in Nashville. There were maybe 50 people there. This year, Rod and I attended the pride celebration together with our friend Rich, and Rod marveled at the thousands in attendance.

Rod was active in organizing and participating in the Cracker Barrel sit ins in Middle Tennessee in the early 1990s when Cracker Barrel was public about their discrimination against LGBT employees and customers. This year Cracker Barrel was one of the sponsors of the Pride. Rod laughed and commented about how far things had come.

Rod was willing to be the face of the LGBT community of Nashville in the media. He did this at a time when it was less safe. He had great courage in that way.

Rod was the first openly gay man to be a foster parent in the state of Tennessee. He later became the first openly gay man permitted to adopt an infant in Tennessee. When Rod and Windle had their first date, Rod brought six-month-old Reggie along with him. After Rod and Windle had their union ceremony, they and Reggie were one of five families nominated to receive Family and Children’s Service’s Family of the Year award.

When Rod left the ministry he pursued a career in mental health care. He became an advocate for persons with mental illness and chemical dependency. One of his first jobs was with the mobile crisis team. He was instrumental in saving the lives of persons who were in mental health crisis and at risk for suicide…

My friendship with Rod grew from the time he arrived here, especially in recent years. We confided in each other often. We had to stay close friends because we knew too much dirt on each other to risk becoming enemies.

Rod was indeed one of the most courageous men I have ever known. He had the courage to put himself on the front line, to fight for causes he believed in even when they were unpopular, to speak his mind, to show up authentically, to take criticism, and to persevere through adversity … until he determined he would persevere no more.

Rod’s death comes as a shock to all of us. Rod struggled with depression most of his life. He was not only an advocate for mental health treatment, he was also a consumer. He was open about this.

He used his own mental illness to educate others.

Over the past few years Rod was under a lot of stress due to multiple life changes and changes in his health. In addition to depression, he was also experiencing early dementia. He was often forgetful and sometimes confused.

Last year he began an alternative treatment to medication, and it seemed to be helping. He said he was feeling better, had more energy… He seemed to be doing better than he had in years.

Two days before he died, he made dinner for his Saturday night card group—something not out of the ordinary. He cooked for his friends often. The day of his death he had brunch with his friends Becky and Jr. Later that day he had dinner with me and Johnny. At dinner, he confirmed plans to go to a concert with us later in the week. The next morning, he planned to have breakfast with his friend Rich.

There were no overt warning signs. We are all dismayed that a man loved by so many would not reach out. That a man who knew the available resources and who could access them, would not use them. It is ironic that the very last thing Rod did in his life was the exact thing he spent so much of his life helping others avoid.

Before coming here today I did some research on statistics related to suicide in the US and specifically Tennessee. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US. Over 44,000 Americans die from suicide every year.

Men are almost 4 times more likely to die by suicide than women.

White males between the age of 45 and 64 have the highest rate of completed suicide in the US and most of them die using firearms.

Tennesseans have a higher suicide rate than the national average. In TN one person dies by suicide every 8 hours. Annually, more than twice as many people die from suicide in Tennessee than by homicide.

Rod left a note, but it does not answer all our questions about why he took his life. Some questions will never be answered… Our thoughts of Rod in the future will always be framed by the last few seconds, the last thing he did, the last choice he made. Rod would not want us to remember him in this way. He would want to be remembered for all he gave us in the 62 years prior; his love, his friendship, his laughter, his courage, his advocacy, his ministry, his beautiful children, his flowers, his creme brûlée, his art, his style, all the things that made him the unique man we grew to love.

I will miss him forever.

NOTE: To read the full eulogy, visit our website. After this issue was finalized but before printing, Nashville was rocked by the deaths of two other LGBT community leaders, Frank Trew and Yvette Sebelist.

We regret that we weren’t able to prepare memorials for these dear friends in time for print, but welcome their friends to share thoughts with our readers by sending letters to jgrady@outandaboutnashville. com.

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S R A E Y E V I F CELEBRATES

A LOOK BACK WITH FOUNDER DERRICK LACHNEY JAMES GRADY

HotMess Sports is a “gay/gay friendly” sports league in Nashville. This popular and expanding league provides opportunities to enjoy athletics and community, centered on some of our favorite childhood sports—kickball, dodgeball, and volleyball.

League founder Derrick Lachney started playing kickball in Washington, DC: “I heard of this new gay/gay friendly kickball league called Stonewall Kickball. I joined as a captain and started my own team, the HotMess Kickers,” he told O&AN a few years ago. The result was somewhat unexpected.

Thanks to kickball, he added, “My circle of friends grew greatly and I finally felt like I was part of this very large community in our nation’s capital.”

So when a business opportunity offered him the chance to return to his hometown of Nashville, he hoped to replicate that experience. “Back in the summer of 2012, HotMess Kickball was just an idea I had for this city that I grew up in,” reflected.

“In the beginning, all I was thinking about was getting it off the ground. I really wasn’t thinking about anything long term,” he replied. “My friends and I wanted to play kickball in an environment where we felt comfortable being ourselves, and I was just hoping there were out there 2017 that wanted the OUTA NDABOU TNASH V I L L Eothers .CO M SEPTEMBER 16

same thing—enough to make a league. Turns out there were.”

“It wasn’t long after that, though, that I noticed its potential and its power to bring people together,” he added. “My thinking quickly changed to making it bigger, better, and to reaching more people! For me HotMess is my child. It’s a lot of work, it’s needy, it gets in trouble sometimes, and it’s making me go grey. But I’ve never been so proud of something or excited to talk about something as much as I am about HotMess and every one of its members.”

Five years later, the league has grown and expanded to include other sports—including dodgeball and volleyball. “It’s been five years and not only are we still going, we still continue to grow EVERY SEASON,” he added. “HotMess has so many members that keep coming back every season, and that’s the biggest compliment to me and the league. But on top of that, current members are out there telling their friends, coworkers, and new Nashvillians about HotMess, and that’s how we continue to grow. It’s word of mouth! And as a hairstylist who has built a career on that same concept, there’s no better advertisement.”

Lachney, from his experience in D.C., came in with some social expectations around participation in the league he was creating, but that too has exceeded what he thought possible.

“Even though I knew the league would be a great way to meet new people, because that’s what it did for me while in D.C., I never imagined I’d have the relationship I have with some of the members,” he said, “especially the captains. A lot of them come back every season, leading their teams, and it’s not an easy job. They deal with me directly, and season after season it brings us closer together.”

More unexpected socially was the way the sports league would bring together Nashville’s LGBT community and its straight allies socially. “We have many straight male and female members who are part of our HotMess family,” he said. “They even bring their real families to the games. I see kids and parents of players every Sunday.”

HotMess isn’t the only athletic outlet for Nashville’s LGBT community, and part of growing HotMess has been cooperating with other organizations.

“I’m proud of the relationship HotMess has formed with The Nashville Grizzlies,” Lachney said. “It’s awesome that two separate sports organizations can both coexist and support each other the way we have been able to do so. I credit Sammy Hann, Tavarus Taylor, and Brett Potter for that….”

HotMess has enjoyed incredible success, but that is not to say that every venture has gone the way Lachney had planned. For instance, he tried for several years to expand to other cities, which has so far been unsuccessful, but he’s changing directions and hopes to make some headway.

“Back in 2014, I tried Louisville,” Lachney explained, “but never got the response I needed to get things started.

Even with the help of Play, I really needed someone from there to kind of take the reins and go. I’m currently working to bring HotMess to Memphis. We’ll see what 2018 has in store!”

And of course, with HotMess, there’s always potential. Teams from the league “have been attending two national tournaments each year since 2014,” Lachney added. “Sin City Shoot Out in Vegas and the Stonewall Sports tournament in D.C. I keep getting asked when the HotMess Sports tournament will be. Like I said, let’s see what 2018 has in store!”

Going forward, the league will continue to enjoy the support of

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community and business organizations that have helped it thrive. “I’m VERY proud to now have Play, Tribe, Lipstick Lounge, The Stirrup, and Canvas all on board as HotMess Sponsors. We also brought on BudLight a couple years ago,” Lachney said. “And HotMess has over 500 members within the league— over 400 in Kickball alone.”

Those hundreds of members give HotMess a visible footprint in the community. “Every Sunday during a kickball season,” Lachney admits, “I’m still shocked to see the ‘rainbow’ of HotMess t-shirt colors take over East Nashville!”

That visibility and manpower has allowed the organization to pay it forward and support the community that has helped it grow. “HotMess has been doing two charity drag shows a year since we started five ago, as well as a PostParty every Valentine’s Day,” Lachney said. “In the past five years, we have raised over $50,000 for HRC and local charities such as Nashville Cares, Out Central, Second Harvest, and Launch Pad.” “I hope that the past five years are a reflection of what’s to come in the next five,” Lachney concluded, reflecting on the experience. “ Whether I’m still running the show or not, I can’t imagine this awesome city and our growing community without it. HotMess is a part of Nashville, and I’m glad I had a part in that.”

O U T A N D A B O U T N A S H V I L L E .CO M

SEPTEMBER 2017

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF HOTMESS SPORTS FACEBOOK, JAMES GRADY, CODY STALLINGS

For more information about HotMess Sports, visit hotmesssports.com, or follow them on Facebook.

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SEPTEMBER 2017

JAMES GRADY

or the past couple of years, Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper—two of the biggest LGBT names in media—have been traveling the country in a show called AC2, which bills itself as “An Intimate Evening with Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen: Deep Talk and Shallow Tales.”

The basic premise is that these two stars, who have known each other for decades and have vacationed together, talked about their deepest secrets, and interviewed each other, take the stage and share their stories.

These two are close, so you know it’s going to get good. They initially met when they were set up on a blind date years ago, but, as Cooper pointed out when interviewed by Kelly RIpa, it never happened because during their phone conversation Cohen showed too much interest in the real housewives of Vanderbilt.

“Andy and I were first set up on a blind date, which never happened because we had a phone call and after two minutes I said, ‘I’m not dating this guy,’” Cooper told Ripa. “He broke my cardinal rule … he mentioned my mom within the first four sentences of meeting me.”

That was of course just Cohen being Cohen, and while they weren’t cut out romantically, the two became good friends. And the show rehashes that friendship, while each of them also goads the other into telling his own stories, infamous and embarrassing at times.

Basically, it’s like your night out at the bar with Cooper and Cohen—so you know plenty is going to get spilled, and not just drinks.

On Friday, October 6, 2017, their show is finally coming to Nashville, and in advance of their visit, I had the opportunity to speak with Cohen about the show and how it has developed.

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Shake it up.

Stir it up.

SINCE 1888 22

O U T A N D A B O U T N A S H V I L L E .CO M

FourRosesBourbon.com

SEPTEMBER 2017

Be mellow. Be responsible.

JAMES: How did you come up with the idea for this show?

ANDY: Anderson was interviewing me about a book that I had coming out, and we just have great rapport and great chemistry. His agent represents Bill O’Reilly, who also has a tour that’s kind of a conversation series that he does with Dennis Miller. He said, “Wow. You two should think about hitting the road and coming up with something, and it will kind of be like Bill O’Reilly and Dennis Miller.” That’s how it came about.

JAMES: You guys have known each other for a long time, though?

ANDY: Yeah. We’ve known each other. We were set up on a blind date over 20 years ago. But it never happened…

JAMES: The show, I understand, is sort of like a conversation between you guys, and with the audience there to hear about some of the old stories. Is there a set dialog at this point, or is it still changing?

ANDY: It’s both. There are stories that we tell in every city, because they seem to go over really well. Then any new stuff that’s happened, he and I just got back from Tahiti, so you never know where we will have just been, or who he’s interviewed, or what I’ve gotten myself into. We definitely try to keep it timely, but also there is stuff that we kind of go back to.

JAMES: When you were planning the show, how did you hit on the stories that you wanted to tell, or the events that you wanted to talk about? How was that planning process like?

ANDY: Well, we had already done ... He’s interviewed me before. We’ve been on TV before a lot, we’ve been with friends, we kind of know each other. We just sat down over a series of conversations and tried to hammer it out, based on what we thought people would want to hear about.

We’ve been doing it for over two years, so now we’ve really honed the stories, and we got rid of stuff that was dead weight. The show feels a lot like going out to a bar drinking with us. We tell stories, and I think people will be surprised by how funny he is.

JAMES: What were some of the stories that you guys thought might be a bigger hit, and then kind of flopped with the audience?

ANDY: That’s a good question. Oh, god… There was a story about me, this guy who lived above me who was dying, and me trying to get his apartment from him, which I think you might have to be a New Yorker to fully understand it.

To everyone else I looked like a lunatic killer, basically, in this story. We like to embarrass each other. As much as we can do that, we do.

JAMES: What do you think most engages people about the show? What kind of things do you think get people’s attention?

ANDY: I think people want to hear us dish, and they want to laugh. That’s exactly what this is. People want to laugh,

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“I think people want to hear us dish, and they want to laugh.

That’s exactly what this is.

People want to laugh, and have fun, and be included in the conversation.”

and have fun, and be included in the conversation. We let people ask us questions for the last 20 minutes or so of the show.

JAMES: My understanding, at least, is that he’s quite a bit more introverted than you are. In the course of the development of the show, are there stories that you are surprised that he’s opened up about with the audience?

ANDY: Oh, my god, yeah. He’s very open, and he’s very loose, and he is really funny. He’s really open...excuse me...about a lot of the tragedy that’s happened in his life, that I don’t think that he’s talked about that much, that’s very personal. He’s very revealing, and then he’ll answer anything people ask him, too, which is great.

I think he’s been open about his love life. He’s been really open about being gay. He’s really open about the loss of his dad and his brother. People he’s been attracted to while interviewing them. Nothing is off limits with both of us.

JAMES: Wow. I think from your side, that totally doesn’t surprise people quite as much.

ANDY: Yeah, exactly. Right. People expect it of me, but of him, I think they’re surprised.

JAMES: Are there things that even you were kind of surprised that you ended up talking about on stage?

ANDY: Yeah. There’s this story, a near death experience that Anderson had that happened when he and I were on vacation that we kind of had vowed never to discuss, but 24

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SEPTEMBER 2017

we talk about it in the show. It’s one of the more shocking moments of the night.

JAMES: That is intriguing. Are there parts of your life that you’re kind of private about?

ANDY: Yeah. I don’t talk that much about my dating life or my sex life. That, I kind of leave ...

JAMES: To the imagination?

ANDY: Exactly.

JAMES: Right. Now, as far as the show goes, what would you want an audience in Nashville to know about it?

ANDY: I’d just want to let them know it’s a great time. It’s like going out for drinks with two old friends, and cocktails are served. It’s a great date night, it’s a great girls’ night out, it’s a great night to be with a lot of friends. It’s a party.

JAMES: How long do you anticipate this tour continuing?

ANDY: I don’t know. We want to keep going ... We’re actually going back to some cities that sold out really quickly. As long as we can go to cities that we haven’t been to, we’ll keep doing it. We can’t wait to come to Nashville.

For more information, or to get tickets to the show at the Ryman Auditorium, visit ac2live.com.

September 9, 2017 • 3:00PM – 10:00PM Murfreesboro, TN • town square WALK • VENDORS • COMMUNITY • LIVE MUSIC • FOOD AND MORE! LIKE AND SHARE ON FACEBOOK!

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2017 NASHVILLE AIDS WALK AND 5K RUN

26TH ANNUAL EVENT CENTERED ON PUBLIC SQUARE PARK Nashville CARES has announced its 26th Annual Nashville AIDS Walk and 5K Run—Tennessee’s oldest continuously running HIV/AIDS fundraiser and one of the city’s highest profile events. This year’s goal is to raise $200,000 to help end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Middle Tennessee. The event will take place on Saturday, September 23 at Public Square Park.

The event is a family-oriented team walk and timed 5K run that gathers participants from all parts of the community.

Businesses, civic clubs, churches, friends and families walk or run while celebrating the vital role that Nashville CARES plays in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Middle Tennessee.

“The Nashville AIDS Walk and 5K Run raises money to help Nashville CARES work toward our mission of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Middle Tennessee,” said Doug Alexander, Chief Development Officer. “It is also a great opportunity for us share the message that HIV/AIDS is still an issue in our local community.”

This year, CARES is also offering early check-in for both runners and walkers. Runners can pick up race packets and t-shirts, and walkers can pick up wristbands and t-shirts, at Rhythm Running at 1513 Demonbreun on September 22, from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.

The day of the run, registration and the Community Expo start at 8:00 a.m. and the 5K Walk & Run start at 9:00 am with an awards ceremony following. There will be free HIV testing at the Community Expo.

NPS Pharmacy is this year’s presenting sponsor, and additional sponsors include: Principle Partner: Gilead; Advocate Partner: Dollar General, HIV Clinical Trials + Program for LGBTI Health Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Red Ribbon Partners: BanCorp South, CMT One Country, James A. Rothberg and Associates, Tennessee Oncology, and Walgreens; Associate Partners: Blue Cross Blue Shield, University of Tennessee Social Work, Planned Parenthood and What Do You Run For?; Restaurant Partners: 417 Union and Jeni’s Ice Cream; Media Partners: Agency 33, The Nashville Scene, Out & About Nashville, Focus Middle Tennessee and DMS Design Works.

For additional information, or to register for the Nashville AIDS Walk and 5K Run, visit NashvilleAIDSWalk.com or call (615) 259-4866. Nashville CARES relies on support from the community to provide services for those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. For information on sponsoring the event, contact events@nashvillecares.org.

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SEPTEMBER 2017

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF NASHVILLE CARES

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NEW GAY BAR, PECKERS, OPENS IN NASHVILLE THIS MONTH BLUE GENE’S OWNERS NEW VENTURE FINALLY READY

JAMES GRADY

This month, Mike Brown and Will Pulley, the former owners of one of Church Streets beloved institutions, Blue Genes, will finally launch their long-awaited new project, Peckers Bar & Grill. It’s been a longer road than expected, but it looks like it’s finally about to pay off.

“We were hoping to be open much earlier than this,” the explained, “but there’s been one obstacle after another.

With all the building boom in Nashville, that’s not surprising. Codes made it very clear that they were going to take things one at a time, regardless of who you are, and no matter how small your project was they’d only take one step at a time. So that’s led to delay after delay—it’s been unreal.”

“But we are in the home stretch,” they added. “We’re working on the floors, we had to have all new floors.

Everything is brand new, it’s just like a new building!”

Asked about specifics of the bar’s theme or what kind of place it’s going to be, the owners were reluctant to give away details. “I really don’t want to give away too much,” he said. “I really want it to be a surprise for everybody. I think a lot of folks think it’s just going to be a dive bar, but it will be far from it. But like I say it’s going to be a surprise and we just hope everybody enjoys it.”

They did provide some detail. The new space is large, with a nice patio and all-new interior. “The new bar is approximately 2300 square feet… It’ll be super nice, all brand new, like he said. We demolished everything—the only thing that was left was the four outer walls and the roof, and everything else is going to be completely new. We will have a beautiful patio out back as well. It’s nonsmoking, except on the patio of course.”

“We’ve also got parking—Lord Jesus that’d been such a hard thing over at Blue Genes, since they took away our parking! Now we have plenty of parking and you don’t have to pay for it!”

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While they wouldn’t go into the bar’s theme, they did elaborate a bit on what Peckers will offer. “We’ve been in business over the years and we just want people to know we welcome anyone and everyone.

We are going to have entertainment—a variety of entertainment, not just karaoke—and I feel that at our location we are going to get not only the gay crowd, but also a lot of straight people.

In that location, there are new buildings going up all the time, and its looking like there’s going to be more growth…We value good people and we want good entertainment. There’s so much talent in the LGBT community and we want to be a place they can come to and perform.

Mike’s also an artist and he plans to have art exhibits—both his work and others— showing there as well.”

As for the ‘Grill’ part of their name, “We’ll start out serving just bar food— chicken wings, hamburgers and hotdogs, basic stuff like that. After we’re open I’d like to have a comfort food night, maybe Wednesday night, and we’ll pair that with some entertainment. Whether that’s trivia or bingo, or something else, I don’t know yet. Then I’d like to have a brunch on Saturday and Sundays but that’s all just going to depend on what our clientele wants.”

One bit of news is that the new venture will have the support of one of The Stirrup’s founders, Timmy Harkum.

“Timmy is coming on board as manager/ lead bartender—you know he has worked with us in the past before at Blue Genes before opening The Stirrup, so we have a good rapport. He didn’t want to be manager on a full-time basis but he agreed to come on and take on that responsibility initially. I’d love to have him do more but that’s what he wanted.”

“We’re extremely happy to have Timmy coming on to work with us. He brings a lot of experience. He’s been in the community so long, and he knows a lot of folks, has great contacts. You know he has worked with us in the past before

SEPTEMBER 2017

at Blue Genes before opening The Stirrup, so we have a good rapport.”

With Harkum on board, staffing is underway and the bar is almost ready to open. “Timmy is working on filling at the staff right now and I think he has the majority of the staff lined up. He’s just finalizing a few things now. So right now we are looking at a soft opening for the 15th or 16th of September, but we’ll keep everyone posted!”

Despite being cryptic about the direction of the bar itself, Brown and Pulley did want to make one thing clear: “There was a lot of uncertainty about whether we were opening a gay bar, and I just want to clear that up. We do serve the LGBTQ community and we just want to make sure that everybody is aware of that. We are a community bar, and we will be working with the entire community for fundraising, for multiple things. We want to make sure everyone feels welcome and at home at Peckers.”

Peckers is located at 237 Hermitage Avenue in Nashville. For more information about Peckers and to keep track of its opening, check it out on Facebook at facebook.com/peckersnashville and on their website peckersnashville.com when it goes online!

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Hayes Nissan Rivergate, Tim McIntyre 1550 Gallatin Road North Madison, TN 37115 352-454-4145 | nissanofrivergate.com

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2015

MEET OUR NEW PASTOR Pastor Brice is a native Daytonian (Ohio) with a heart for southern hospitality, a Biblical Storyteller, Pastoral Counselor, Worship Leader, Preacher, Teacher, Fundraiser and Friend-raiser

Worship Service & Children’s Church 10AM Youth & Adult Education 9AM

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1 5 Y E A R S O F LG B T N E W S 5/5/16 11:30 AM

OVER

the RAINBOW

AWA K E A N D A L I V E

JULIE CHASE

The pastor greeted me on the front porch of his soon-to-be-vacated church building late in July. He was dressed in the same clothes he wears to preach in: pressed t-shirt and slacks.

The Reverend Stan Mitchell has a lot on his mind these days, and the leaving of an established church campus for rented quarters in South Nashville is just one of them. Pastor Mitchell has been trying to get progressive-minded Christians who want GracePointe Church to be their spiritual home to come down to his campus in Williamson County for some time. Soon they will have no more excuses.

GracePointe began holding services inside the walls of Unity of Nashville very soon after we spoke...roughly eight miles up the Franklin Pike and over the Davidson County line. In doing so the congregation is going back to its roots as a church that met in temporary spaces.

One of the South’s first mainstream Christian congregations to openly become LGBTQI-inclusive has left its home for parts known—and unknown.

It was a different church that settled in Williamson County over eight years ago. A much larger one too. But the times have changed and previously unspoken truths have been accepted by most of the present congregants.

The public embrace of LGBTQI people and same-sex relationships

by Mitchell and GracePointe Church in 2015 has led to a major decline in attendance and revenue. The pastor and his congregation saw the financial writing on the wall and decided to go back to being renters for the time being.

They don’t mind for the most part: they like their new progressive stance and the majority are willing to move to a temporary church home for it.

The upcoming move to Davidson 32

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County makes sense, Mitchell argues, because progressive-minded people who embrace progressive, social justice oriented ministries tend to live in urban areas.

“We need to get being LGBTQI off the sin list because it’s killing kids,” the pastor begins during our conversation.

He has just told me of the church’s plan to help lead a silent protest of a Southern Baptist Convention sponsored meeting on Christian parenting the next month in coordination with other churches and the pro-LGBTQI spiritual outreach group Faith in America.

Pastor Mitchell is excited. As the group’s Director of Spiritual Outreach, this is an opportunity he has been looking forward to. He reminds me that while they are not specifically targeting Southern Baptist ministers for direct engagement, they tend to be the more noticeable. His group is trying to help educate any religious body who believes being LGBTQI is a sin.

“Sometimes it takes a big ship a long time to turn around,” Mitchell says when speaking of Conservative Christian culture and the LGBTQI community.

“There will be a moment down the road when society, including churches, look back on all this and say ‘oh my G-d!’ “ Hailing from a fundamentalist Christian family in Northeast Arkansas, Mitchell began to rebel against his background almost as soon as he began preaching at the age of sixteen. It was the Christian literature he read on the sly from the more liberal side of the spectrum that started him on this path.

“From that moment, the door cracked open for me,” Mitchell says. He could not imagine how people outside his fundamentalist worldview could write so movingly about the Christian faith and began to secretly read the literature mentioned in the bibliographies of those

SEPTEMBER 2017

ILLUSTRATION: MELISSA GAY

PASTOR STAN MITCHELL AND GRACEPOINTE CHURCH ARE PAYING THE PRICE FOR BEING INCLUSIVE AND DISCOVERING WHO THEY REALLY ARE INSIDE.

books. He wound up being changed inside and on the steady gradual path towards a rebellion against previous accepted traditional Christian views.

Asked how he wound up in the middle of our fight, Mitchell says he got here as a matter of conscience. He professed a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint toward the LGBTQI community until roughly twenty years ago when he began to directly engage many of us while pastoring another local church. The conversations and experiences educated him...and forced him to choose between the learned faith he grew up with and the growing knowledge inside his heart that much of what he had been taught may have been misinterpreted.

For Pastor Mitchell, the Christian Bible is not wrong: it is our understanding of what the Bible says that is likely wrong.

Over the last twenty years, he has concluded that it was likely he and the majority of the Church have been terribly wrong about same-sex relationships and LGBTQI people.

“That’s the history of the Church,” Mitchell explained. “It comes from experiences, often the experiences of marginalized groups to help it to grow.”

Pastor Mitchell and GracePointe Church began to openly profess a “Progressive Christian” approach to

ministry by announcing their 2015 inclusion statement from the pulpit.

Progressive theology attempts to take the teachings of Christian scripture and apply it to a modern environment, according to Mitchell. The accumulation of knowledge and experience necessarily forces a re-examination of old scriptural interpretations over time.

“Science, reason and experience are always driving us back to the text (of scripture) to read it more effectively than before,” Mitchell explains. “We don’t reinvent wheels...we grow.”

Pastor Mitchell believes that every generation receives the Christian message as best they can within the bounds of their culture and knowledge.

Speaking as a Progressive Christian, Mitchell says that he does not feel obliged to agree with traditional Christian teaching regarding LGBTQI subjects. The overwhelming majority of our culture no longer accepts that acts of slavery or misogyny are justifiable even if tolerated by Christian scripture...why should we then blindly accept the same about LGBTQI issues?

None of what has happened so far since the inclusion statement of 2015 was truly planned, according to the pastor.

“I never truly considered that it would turn into all this,” Mitchell adds. “I probably did not think (the outcomes) all the way through.”

He tells me the story of how his former minister of music came out to him as LGBTQI back in 2005. Mitchell says that he wanted to take his church

in an inclusive direction back then by supporting his friend’s decision to publicly leave the closet, but the minister resigned instead to spare his church a potentially divisive issue.

Nine years later, the same friend was about to get married to his long time same-sex partner. Mitchell would have agreed to perform the wedding if asked, he says, but he wasn’t because this person knew that the pastor’s participation could still lead to a potentially fatal division at GracePointe.

Soon after receiving the wedding invitation, Mitchell was told by mutual friends that the minister who had agreed to tie the knot was forced to drop out because of pressure. “It was a crisis of conscience for me,” he says of that particular time.

Mitchell and other worship leaders at GracePointe had already been struggling in private with the issue of how to move forward to the full inclusion of LGBTQI people in their church. They knew that it was grossly unfair to ask them to stay hidden inside a closet because other congregants would not be able to tolerate LGBTQI people for a host of reasons, not just religious ones.

No one wanted the church to break up, especially Stan Mitchell, his friends and allies in ministry roles—and on GracePointe’s board. But he couldn’t turn his back on his friend. He says that he knew instinctively then that performing the wedding was the right thing to do.

But it sent a shockwave through his church. The full inclusion statement

followed soon after. And the aftershocks of both have yet to abate nearly three years later.

I ask the pastor if he feels that he may unintentionally went around his board when he performed that wedding?

“Hindsight is 20/20,” the pastor replies somewhat ruefully. He says that if he had to do this all over again, he would have gone immediately to the church’s full board and told them what he felt he had to do, offering his resignation if it had been requested.

Mitchell says that he told supportive members of his board at the time of his intentions. They asked him to “not make a big deal” about his officiating the wedding and the full board would meet on its regular schedule to discuss the ramifications of his action. Two years after, he says that he would love the opportunity to do all of this differently, but realizes he cannot…

To read more about the congregation’s journeys—both spiritual and physical—including excerpts from Pastor Mitchell’s final sermons and the former location, see the full version of this story on O&AN’s website.

Julie Chase is the pen name for a local 40-something trans woman. A graduate of The University of the South at Sewanee, she loves butterflies, strong women and the Austrian School of Economics.

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SCRUFF BRINGS ALL THE BOYS TO THE BAR THEIR APP IS BETTER THAN YOURS

Last month, we talked with the founders of SCRUFF in advance of their visit to Nashville. Spreading their brand, the hook-up app entrepreneurs held one of the hottest beer busts to hit Tribe in a while. So if you missed it, here’s your look inside. And enjoy the irony of a hookup app getting guys off their phone and socializing in real life!

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SEPTEMBER 2017

PHOTOS: CODY STALLINGS

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BIANCA DEL RIO HEADLINED PLAY FUNDRAISER

DRAG RACE WINNER RAISED MONEY FOR PLAY-A-ROLE

PHOTOS: CODY STALLINGS

Bianca Del Rio is without a doubt one of the funniest queens doing standup, and she rarely does clubs, but when it comes to raising funds for good causes, she made an exception! To raise money for Play Dance Bar’s charity fund, Play-A-Role, Bianca spent the evening keeping the bar’s clientele in stitches. And as always she left us waiting for her next return engagement.

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SEPTEMBER 2017

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GRIZZLIES ANNUAL CARWASH RETURNED TO LIPSTICK RAISING MONEY TO SUPPORT BINGHAM 2018 COSTS

PHOTOS: JAMES GRADY

The Grizzlies got East Nashville hot and bothered with their summer carwash, one of the organization’s major fundraisers. This year, that money is doubly important as the team looks to finance its trip to Bingham 2018 in Amsterdam! So watch for more opportunities to support the team this coming year—and trust that whenever the Grizzlies raise money, they’ll also give you the chance to feel dirty, no matter how much cleaning gets done.

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O U T A N D A B O U T N A S H V I L L E .CO M

SEPTEMBER 2017

@OUTANDABOUTNASH

1 5 Y E A R S O F LG B T N E W S

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Photo by Joan Marcus

OCTOBER 10-15 • TPAC

ONCE YOU’VE SEEN IT, YOU’LL FIND IT HARD TO SETTLE FOR LESS EVER AGAIN.” — The Wall Street Journal

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS MUSIC AND LYRICS BY

GEORGE GERSHWIN AND IRA GERSHWIN BOOK BY

CRAIG LUCAS DIRECTED AND CHOREOGRAPHED BY

CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON Illustration: Don Oehl; Logo: Esther Wu

OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 5 TPAC TPAC.ORG/Broadway • 615-782-4040 Groups of 10 or more call 615-782-4060

OUT A N D A B O U T N A S H V I L L E .CO MAn American SEPTEMBER 2017 Broadway Series in Paris sponsored by presented by

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