QNotes, June 28, 2019

June 28-July 11, 2019

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June 28-July 11, 2019

inside this issue

June 28-July 11, 2019 Vol 34 No 05

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contributors this issue

John-Manuel Andriote, Buff Faye, Camilla K. Cannon, Rev. Dr. John Cleghorn, Pam Kelly, Lainey Millen, Stanley Popovich, Terri Schlichenmeyer, Gregg Shapiro, Rachel Sutherland, Trinity

front page

Graphic Design by Lainey Millen Photography: Netflix Mission:

The focus of QNotes is to serve the LGBTQ and straight ally communities of the Charlotte region, North Carolina and beyond, by featuring arts, entertainment, news and views content in print and online that directly enlightens, informs and engages the readers about LGBTQ life and social justice issues.

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charlotteobserver.com/1166/ a local news partner of The Charlotte Observer

Being Mouse

Our People

Same-sex marriage plaintiff Lennie Gerber, civil liberties activist, wife and senior community leader shares her story, her 52-year relationship with Pearl Berlin and views on today’s hot topics and what it means to be a hero.

5 PPSAT Charlotte to Increase Services 5 Four Years of

Gay Marriage 6 State Dems Vote Allison for Trans Chair 6 Playboy Unveils Pride Campaign 6 News Briefs 7 Raleigh Center Hires New Executive Director

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a&e 14 15 21 23

A Look at Queer History Stonewall in the Arts Tell Trinity Dishing with Buff Faye

Spiritual Reflections

A clergy member shares his views on acceptance, being welcomed at one’s spiritual home, his church’s open door policy and more.

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life 8 From Brooklyn to Ballantyne 18 Our People:

Lennie Gerber 19 Mental Health

views 4 Owning our Heroic Legacy at Stonewall 50 12 Spiritual Reflections

events 22 22

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June 28-July 11, 2019

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Owning our heroic legacy at Stonewall 50 Guest Commentary: Flipping the victim narrative on its head, Stonewall liberated us to tell our stories in our own voices.

There’s healing power in that—if we claim it.

BY John-Manuel Andriote | guest Contributor

must address mental health The last weekend of June challenges. will mark the 50th anniversary Odd as it may sound, of the 1969 riots at New York’s LGBTQ folk are also some Stonewall Inn that launched of the most resilient people the “modern” LGBTQ equality anywhere. And that is precisely movement. what the world first saw at the This month we also marked Stonewall Inn on the night of the 38th year since HIV-AIDS Friday, June 27, 1969. The riots began both to drive and sidebecame the historic touchtrack the movement as it cut a stone they are because of what deadly path through gay male followed them. communities across America.

It seemed that overnight, Anniversaries are good the closet had become an times to assess the present anachronism of a darker time. against the past, consider “Gay liberation” meant literally what has changed for better freeing ourselves — throwing or worse and retell the stories off the psychological and spirithat make up our personal and tual shackles — of the shame community history. How we and blame heterosexuals had frame those stories makes all imposed on LGBTQ people the difference in how we live simply for being “different.” our lives.

It meant “coming out,” As any LGBTQ person can proudly embracing that differtell you, we are among society’s ence and standing together in most traumatized women and solidarity as a community. men. From the time we’re kids Stonewall gave LGBTQ we are abused, beaten up, inpeople a new way to tell our sulted, rejected and tossed-out. story, as individuals and as Sadly and not surprisingly, a community. It flipped the being treated like someone narrative on its head, rejecting who is “less than” can seep inthe role of victim we seemed side our minds and hearts. It’s The Stonewall Inn, 1969. (Photo Credit: Diana Davies/ always to be cast in — and too too easy to think we don’t deNew York Public Library) often cast ourselves. serve to be treated with exactly Instead, we asserted our the same respect, and possess freedom and right to tell our story in our own voices. the exact same legal rights, as people who happen to be Gay and lesbian historians began to document and piece heterosexual. It’s too easy to stigmatize ourselves. together stories from our past so we could finally anIt’s not coincidental that a disproportionate number of swer Harry Hay’s questions at the time he founded the LGBTQ men and women live with mental health challenges Mattachine Society in 1950, the country’s first “homophile” like depression and anxiety. organization: Who are gay people? Where do gay people It’s not surprising gay men, particularly young Africancome from? Where have gays been throughout history?

American gay men, continue to bear the greatest impact Finally, after Stonewall, we began to value our own of HIV in the U.S. Consider this: Research finds that half of history and understand that LGBTQ history is American gay men are sexually abused as boys, and an even higher history and part of even greater history of the human race. percentage of African-American and Latino gay men. This We could finally assert our pride in the many and multifold suggests that our risky choices are probably driven by contributions we have made throughout the ages, in every depression, substance over-use and damaged self-esteem area of life. at least as strongly as “horniness” alone. It also suggests And we could begin, at last, to bring our lives and loves that HIV prevention and treatment adherence messages

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June 28-July 11, 2019

into full (at least fuller) public view, no longer afraid to say out loud that we love, too, and happen to love a person of our own sex. Heterosexual America caught a glimpse of how deep and real our love was when they saw us tending our friends and lovers in the dark AIDS years, and mourning our dead openly and even flamboyantly in the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

In a mere half-century, we have been tested by legalized homophobia aimed at stripping us of our Constitutional rights and a deadly health crisis. We have prevailed in society-shaping challenges to the laws that oppress us, most dramatically in the 2015 Supreme Court decision to permit legal same-sex marriage nationwide.

And we, our community’s activists, have been instrumental in pushing and pulling political and scientific leaders along to the point that HIV is now a chronic manageable condition, not a death sentence.

We have a tremendous amount to be proud of at this 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Best of all, we have what I call a heroic legacy of brave men and women to claim for ourselves.

That’s why my message is this: Own the history of Stonewall for yourself. Feel proud of our community’s awesome organizing, caregiving and fundraising in the AIDS years. Weave the legends and lessons of Stonewall into your personal story. And tell your story, and our story, not as a tale of woe — but as a heroic journey of triumphing over adversity to find healing and create a life that is Stonewall strong. : : John-Manuel Andriote’s latest book “Stonewall Strong: Gay Men’s Heroic Fight for Resilience, Good Health, and a Strong Community” is now available in paperback. He is also the author of “Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life in America” His work has appeared in print and online publications ranging from The Atlantic to the Washington Post. He writes the “Stonewall Strong” blog on gay men’s resilience for Psychology Today. For more information, visit jmandriote.com.

Errata

In our last issue’s print version Our People profile on Ames Simmons, we had identified him as the Trans Policy Director at Equality North Carolina. His actual title is Policy Director. We regret the error.

news

PPSAT Charlotte to increase services

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic Moves to Larger Health and Education Center Near Uptown

BY Rachel Sutherland | Guest Contributor In 2018, PPSAT saw almost 4,000 individual patients in CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Planned Parenthood South Atlantic’s Charlotte for essential healthcare and administered more than (PPSAT) new health center will double its square footage with its 5,800 STI tests at the Albemarle Rd. health center. move to a building just outside of Uptown Charlotte this summer.

The new health center, scheduled to open this summer, will The new, state-of-the art health and education center at 700 S. continue to offer existing comprehensive health services such as Torrence St. will have more than 10,626 square feet for expanded birth control, cancer screenings, Pap tests, emergency contraclient services, education and administrative offices. ception, pregnancy testing and options counseling, hormone “Planned Parenthood is deeply committed to providing affirming therapy for transgender patients, testing and treatment Charlotte with a health and education center that befits the comfor sexually-transmitted infections. The new center will also allow munity’s stature within our four-state service area,” says Jenny PPSAT to expand services and begin providing abortion care.

Black, PPSAT president and chief executive officer. “Our patients “The new Planned Parenthood South Atlantic health and and entire community deserve to access the highest quality of education center will raise the standard of care in Charlotte,” says care possible, and that is why I’m so excited for this expansion of Robin Perrigo-Mermans of The Merancas Foundation and PPSAT all that we do here in Charlotte.” capital campaign committee member. “It will be a place open to The move was funded by an ambitious capital fundraising camall — women, men and teens — with no judgment, regardless of paign led by powerhouse business leaders Jill Dinwiddie, Crandall Planned Parenthood South Atlantic welcomed the gender, income, status. As Charlotte grows so does the need for Bowles and Linda Hudson. The campaign, started in 2016, has so community to the new Charlotte health center on high-quality, affordable reproductive health services. According far raised $8.5 million of its $10 million fundraising goal.

June 4 during its ribbon cutting ceremony. (Photo to the Guttmacher Institute, 62,000 women in Mecklenburg “The new health center is important because given growth of Credit: Planned Parenthood South Atlantic) County are in need of publicly funded contraception, but just 21 Charlotte, we badly need expanded health care in a more accespercent receive these services. The expansion and accessibility of sible area for the population we serve. Many of our patients can’t the new PPSAT health center will help to close this gap.” get comparable care elsewhere. This new, larger facility demonstrates how much support there To learn more about the services that PPSAT offers or for more information, visit is for Planned Parenthood despite the current opposition across the country and in Charlotte,” plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-south-atlantic. : : co-chair Bowles says.

Four years of gay marriage Strong Commitments and Fragile Gains

O

ne June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, declaring that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples under the Constitution, and that all 50 states and the District of Columbia must grant these couples the same marriage rights guaranteed to opposite-sex couples.

By 2017, over one million Americans were legally married to someone of the same sex, representing around 10 percent of the overall LGBTQ American population. While celebration and embrace of gay marriage was swift and widespread, the last four years have revealed a number of difficulties facing same-sex couples.

A legal system unacustommed to gay divorce has grappled with how to fairly and consistently litigate these cases. In addition to continuing attempts to overturn the ruling in Obergefell vs. Hodges, anti-LGBTQ organizations have turned their attention toward attacking the parental fitness of same-sex couples and seeking to erode their ability to adopt and foster children. The advent of the Trump administration has exacerbated fears of a disintegration and possible nullification of the right to marry.

On the matter of divorce, LGBTQ Americans are more likely to grapple with legal confusion and lack of precedent regarding same-sex divorces than outright discrimination.

The fundamental issues to be settled in a divorce are the same for opposite-sex and same-sex couples: asset division, spousal support and child custody. All of these issues are made more complicated for same-sex couples who were in a “marriage-like” relationship for many decades before the legalization of gay marriage, but could not access the legal rights that came along with marriage.

Asset division is a particularly thorny issue for samesex couples divorcing after long-term relationships. In divorce law, there are two types of property: marital property — all property acquired by one or more spouses during the course of the marriage — and separate property — the property that each spouse owned prior to entering the relationship, inherited or received as a gift addressed specifically to them alone.

Typically, separate property is not “on the table” in divorce proceedings; however, same-sex couples who began

BY Camilla K. Cannon| QNotes CONTRIBUTING WRITER “marriage-like” relationships before Obergefell v. Hodges may have been forced to purchase property in separate names during their years where many same-sex couples are building wealth as a unit. Spousal support poses a similar problem: generally speaking, a spouse is more likely to receive spousal support the longer they had been married; however, in the absence of judicial precedents explicitly outlining how “marriage-like” relationships ought to be considered, judges are typically left to their own discretion. When it comes to child custody in same-sex divorces, non-biological parents are not automatically guaranteed custody rights, a fact which should encourage many same-sex couples to be proactive about securing full adoption.Although Donald Trump himself claims to be a supporter of the LGBTQ community, he has stacked his cabinet with many officials with disturbing histories of anti-gay statements and actions. In 2006, for instance, Vice President Mike Pence gave a speech in support of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, stating that “societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage and family.”

In January 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmed that he still opposed the decision of Obergefell vs.

Hodges, and signalled that he believes each state ought to determine its own laws regarding the issue. LGBTQ advocates are particularly concerned that the addition of two Trump appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, to the Supreme Court could result in an eventual ruling to overturn gay marriage.

Two measures recently taken by the Trump administration are cause for grave concern for married same-sex couples looking to adopt, have children via surrogacy and create blended families. In January 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services granted federally-funded foster care agencies in South Carolina an exemption from federal rules barring such organizations from discriminating against potential parents on the grounds of religion or sexual orientation, a move which many believe will be replicated across the nation. Also in 2019, the State Department denied birthright citizenship to the infant daughter of two married American male citizens who was born in Canada on the grounds that,

because she was conceived using an anonymous sperm donor, the infant’s birth was “out of wedlock” and she was, therefore, ineligible for citizenship.

Connie Vetter, a Charlotte attorney specializing in LGBTQ issues, finds this shift in policy particularly chilling because birthright citizenship is typically considered sacrosanct. “I can’t see any reason for it other than to be hurtful.”

Like many other of the administration’s discriminatory policies, it is likely that this issue will be taken up in the courts.

Following the 2016 presidential election, many Americans, both within and without the LGBTQ community, felt an urgent need to take certain legal and medical actions “before it was too late.” Transgender Americans rushed to pursue name changes and legal revision of gender markers on official documents, and many people who feared becoming pregnant rushed to get birth control implants in anticipation of restricted access to birth control and a rise in anti-abortion legislation. When asked which if any of these actions LGBTQ people should consider doing before the 2020 election, Vetter says, “All of those things. If there is something you think needs to be done, do it now.”

Same-sex couples should be especially mindful of creating living wills and power-of-attorney documents in order to ensure that their spouse’s right to act as their representative in the case of incapacitation will be recognized even if the rights and responsibilities of legal marriage are withdrawn. Married same-sex couples with children who are the biological child of only one parent should also be proactive about adoption before a potentially more hostile environment for same-sex parents develops. Vetter stresses that any individual seeking legal services specifically relating to their LGBTQ identity should take pains to locate a lawyer who is actually knowledgeable and well-versed in the area.

When asked if she could have imagined 20 years ago that gay marriage would be legal nationwide within her lifetime, Vetter answers instantly: “Nope.” Even when it was, legally speaking, apparent that the decision was imminent, it was hard for her to wrap her head around the new reality until the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling came down. While the past four years have been full of many triumphs and affirmative unions, it is clear that same-sex marriage, adoption and divorce is hardly a settled issue legally, politically and culturally.

June 28-July 11, 2019

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Briefs

news State Dems vote ‘yes’ for Allison for trans leadership RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina State Executive Committee for the North Carolina Democratic Party has voted to approve the appointment of Janice Covington Allison as its Transgender Caucus statewide chair. She (and the caucus) becomes the first to hold that position anywhere in the Democratic Party.

Joining Allison are: Angela Bridgman, first vice chair; Wendy Ella May, second vice chair; Flex Jonez, third vice chair; Katherine Harris, secretary; and Kally Hinson, treasurer.

Allison shared that this was a major milestone for the transgender community because in the past they had no organized political voice. “Once other states come on board we would be able to apply to the Democratic Janice Covington Allison (right) presents the Transgender National Committee to be recognized as our own Democratic National Caucus to the North Carolina Democratic Party for an approval Convention caucus so we can affect positive change for transgender rights vote from the state executive committee. Others pictured are by way of lobbying and effective platform building.” (left to right) Angela Brightman, first vice chair, Wendy Ela In 1995 it began to be obvious to her that the transgender community was May, second vice chair and Wayne Goodwin, state party chair. in need of its own voice because it was being left out of legislation that included only the gay and lesbian community. “While attending LGB organization meetings, it began to be hard for me to understand why I was a transgender person who was being looked at as a gay man wearing a dress. This to me was not acceptable, because I was not gay, my sexual orientation was heterosexual even though my gender identity made me a transgender woman.”

Allison thinks the final straw for her was in 2007 when the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ENDA was first introduced to Congress giving the transgender community “false hopes because of Rep. Barney Frank used his political influence for the legislation to only include gays and lesbians, leaving the transgender community with no protections. This is when I realized the transgender community needed its own voice,” she remarked.

“I realized the only way my community could ever have its own voice was through politics. I began to get involved in the Democratic Party, getting to know legislators and the heavyweights so I could lobby my agenda. In 2012 I was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, the first in North Carolina. I joined the Democratic Women of Mecklenburg County where no transgender woman had been before where I became a board member. I also became a member of the Democratic Party State Executive Committee and the State Resolutions & Platform Committee.” SheI served two terms on the Delegate Selection Committee for the 2016 and 2020 Democratic National Convention and became accepted, she said.

“I figured it was time for the transgender community to make a move to have its own voice at the table. We were tired of table scraps and a rubber chicken. In 2015 I started working to have a standalone Transgender Political Caucus, and with the help of several others even though it took five years of lobbying, we made our move and it paid off.

“The transgender community has been oppressed for decades, and now because of resistance, we are moving forward with a voice,” Allison concluded. info: ncdp.org.

— Lainey Millen

Playboy unveils Pride campaign NEW YORK, N.Y. — Playboy announced its collaboration with The Trevor Project to help drive awareness and raise funds for its “50 Bills 50 States” initiative.

“50 Bills 50 States” is an initiative working to protect LGBTQ youth from conversion therapy in every state in the nation and countries around the world. The two entities are catching the wave of the magazine’s “PRIDE IS GOOD” campaign, inspired by the 1960’s rallying cry for equality “Gay is Good.” It celebrates free expression, demonstrates solidarity with the queer community and advocates for protecting LGBTQ youth from conversion therapy and its ideology of shame across the U.S. The campaign honors the progress made since Playboy first advocated for equal rights five decades ago and recognizes what still needs to be done to secure equality for all.

As part of the multifaceted campaign, Playboy commissioned seven queer artists to create renderings that enable all people to express themselves and feel proud of who they are. Seth Bogart, Winston Elliott, C. Finley, Sarah Maxwell, Nina Palomba, Favianna Rodriguez and Loveis Weiss reimagined the iconic Playboy “bunny ears” to create celebratory pieces for “PRIDE IS GOOD.” These curated pieces represent Playboy’s “call-to-ears”— a physical manifestation of Playboy’s commitment to Pride and ongoing support of the LGBQT community. Sale of the ears benefits The Trevor Project.

“An estimated 700,000 LGBTQ adults have been subjected to conversion therapy, with 350,000 of them receiving the dangerous and discredited treatment as youth and sadly that number continues to grow by the thousands each year,” said Amit Paley, CEO executive director of The Trevor Project, citing data from the Williams Institute. “We’re grateful to Playboy for supporting The Trevor Project’s campaign to protect LGBTQ youth by ending conversion therapy in every state in the country.”

“Playboy’s core mission is to support the idea that everyone, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, race or religion, should be allowed to pursue pleasure, free from judgment and restriction,” said Rachel Webber, Playboy’s CEO and president of corporate strategy.

“Our ‘PRIDE IS GOOD’ campaign honors the progress we’ve made and underscores our commitment to do what still remains to be done to secure dignity for all. We stand with and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, and we are honored to support The Trevor Project, which for years has fought for the rights of this community and whose advocacy has been an important part of a successful movement securing the passage of legislation against conversion therapy in 18 states and counting. Playboy will continue to push for real policy change in all 50 states, and to remove the barriers to pleasure for all.”

Playboy has been an advocate of the LGBTQ+ community since the company’s inception in 1953. The magazine published “The Crooked Man” in 1955, a radical-for-its-time short story by Charles Beaumont which presented a world in which being gay was the norm and heterosexuality was criminalized. In 1969, three months before the Stonewall Riots jumpstarted the modern LGBTQ rights movement, Playboy published a reader’s letter titled “Gay Is Good,” supporting the letter’s anti-conversion therapy stance and sharing the sentiment that being gay was not something that needed to be cured. Representatives from the magazine said its efforts to end conversion therapy comes full circle with the “PRIDE IS GOOD” campaign as the company continues to give a voice to the movement. In 1991, Playboy published its first nude pictorial featuring an openly transgender model, actress Caroline “Tula” Cossey. And more recently, Playboy was awarded the 2018 British LGBTQ Award for Best Brand in the UK for its work with transgender supermodel Ines Rau. With editorial guidance from The Trevor Project, Playboy also dedicated part of its Sexuality and Gender summer issue to survivors of conversion therapy and activists who are fighting, state by state, to protect youth from the practice nationwide. Sam Brinton, Ralph Bruneau, Dusty Ray Bottoms, Peter Nunn, Veronica Kennedy and Gaby GarciaVera are featured as modern-day champions for their resilience and perseverance.

In addition, Playboy commissioned a capsule collection including artist-designed bunny ears, a T-shirt line featuring the artists’ designs and more, plus it launched a social content campaign featuring influencers from the LGBTQ and ally community. info: playboyshop.com. thetrevorproject.org.

— Lainey Millen

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June 28-July 11, 2019

Org seeks contributions

The Alliance for Full Acceptance in North Charleston, S.C., is seeking donations of items to help them make their new space their “home.” Needed are: blinds to cover windows, seating for visitors, TV and web conference platform, security system and signage. Contact them at info@affa-sc.org to learn more.

info: affa-sc.org.

Advocate retires, scholarship funded

The North Carolina AIDS Action Network (NCAAN) has recognized Carolyn McAllaster, a founding board member of the organization, with an annual scholarship in her honor to mark her retirement. NCAAN was awarded a challenge grant of $75,000 from the Elton John AIDS Foundation to establish the NCAAN Endowment at the NC Community Foundation in acknowledgement of McAllaster for her career contributions and long-standing impact on the HIV community in the state. The scholarship will go to an advocate to attend AIDSWatch.

McAllaster is the Colin W. Brown clinical professor of law at Duke University School of Law. She is the founder of the Health Justice Clinic at Duke and currently the director of the Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative. Contributions can be made to the endowment in McAllaster’s name online at bit.ly/2J0oJAJ.

info: ncaan.org.

Two states outlaw conversion therapy

The conversion therapy issue has become moot in two newly added states to the list of those whose legislatures have banned the practice. Maine was 17th and Colorado was 18th to condemn it, thus protecting LGBTQ youth and others. Meanwhile, North Carolina’s bill has yet to be heard.

info: pulse.ncpolicywatch.org.

Astraea exec steps down

J. Bob Alotta has announced that she is leaving her post as executive director of Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.

The board has begun the process of identifying an interim leader and creating a roadmap for its future.

info: astraeafoundation.org.

Minister expresses community support

Rev. Mark Sandlin has come out in support of the LGBTQ community, saying that in doing so it “was the Christian thing to do,” the Greensboro News & Observer reported.

info: bit.ly/2J5c3bR.

Art on display for Pride Month

The Arts of the Pamlico has been showcasing artwork pieces from across North America in its 50 Years of Pride exhibit in Washington, D.C. The event continues through July 6.

info: bit.ly/2J880f1.

High schooler joins World Pride

LGBTQ Victory Fund announced that Nat Werth, the Wisconsin high school valedictorian who was denied a valedictory speech because he is gay, would march with Victory Fund at World Pride in New York City. He will also be provided a spot at a future Victory Institute Candidate & Campaign Training — a competitive, four-day intensive training where LGBTQ people from across the nation learn how to run for office.

info: victoryfund.org.

Raleigh center names new executive director RALEIGH, N.C. — The LGBT Center of Raleigh has hired Lindsey Lughes as their new executive director, taking on the role that its former leader, James Miller, held for a number of years.

All of this comes at a time of transition for the center as it has already had one transitional event this year, the move to new headquarters on Hargett St. The center shared that “Lindsey has already arrived with an open heart and an excitement for taking the center’s mission to newer and greater heights.”

Lughes has worked at various non-profits in North Carolina such as the American Social Health Association providing information to folks living with chronic STIs before becoming involved in political organizing. As an organizer, she traveled the country working on a number of campaigns.

The birth of her first child in 2009 put a halt on that as a career, she said, but she continued volunteering and spending time in “queer spaces.” Shortly after her baby was born, she and her wife relocated to Pennsylvania.

“In 2014 I became aware that many people had little awareness or understanding of transgender identities, so leveraging my cisgender privilege, I began teaching courses on LGBTQ+ identities and challenges faced by queer folks in a number of different spaces such as churches and schools, she added. This eventually led to an adjunct teaching position at Temple University, Harrisburg and then to a position as youth programs director at the LGBT Center of Central PA located in Harrisburg, Pa., and later as director of training and education with the same organization. In this role, she traveled throughout an eight-county region in Central PA providing training for non-profits, corporations, hospitals, public K-12 schools and universities.

Lughes interested in working with the center came from her eargerness to move back to North Carolina, and Raleigh specifically, saying that she “couldn’t imagine NOT working for an LGBT Center! The opportunity came up to apply for the executive director role, and I had to go for it. Combining my love of creating safe, affirming spaces for people in queer communities with my love of my hometown was a wonderful opportunity!”

She hopes that she can continue growing the programs like Out! Raleigh and the center’s library which have received recognition throughout the southeast. She wants to put a focus on racial justice initiatives and creating more exclusive space for the most marginalized people in the community. “I bring a lens around training and education and am also excited to develop the training programs the center offers for both LGBTQ+ communities and the many wonderful non-profits, government agencies and corporations who call Wake County home.” She also wants to address public health needs through mental health initiatives.

Her future hopes for the organization is that it expands programming to serve more people. “As Wake County continues to grow and become more diverse, the center should reflect these changes. Becoming a truly anti-racist organization is also essential. This will be a cultural shift that may take time, but I will affirm our dedication to working towards

Passing the rainbow baton — Former Executive Director James Miller with newly hired Executive Director Lindsey Lughes. (Photo Credit: LGBT Center of Raleigh) racial justice — specifically for black transgender women who are at such great risk in our society, and often the unsung heroes and backbone of our entire LGBTQ+ movement,” she shared.

Her engagement with the community will focus on the launch of an expansive needs assessment through a variety of means — online surveys, listening sessions, town hallstyle meetings, etc. Once they have gathered that data later this year, they will use this to create a new plan for inclusion and equity and evaluate where gaps in services are currently. The center will work with community partners and, hopefully, gain new community partners who have similar goals. Additionally, they have a dedicated staff person for community engagement initiatives and will seek collaborations on a number of events.

“Quite simply — we will ask people what they need and then work to accomplish those goals,” she concluded. info: lgbtcenterofraleigh.com.

— Lainey Millen

June 28-July 11, 2019

qnotes

7

life

From Brooklyn to Ballantyne: The story behind Charlotte’s affordable housing crisis

Charlotte’s history of affordable housing includes broken promises and empty gestures.

Now that the city’s chronic shortage has become a crisis, leaders are responding with unprecedented resources.

Will this time be different?

BY Pam Kelly | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A

nyone who’s lived in Charlotte for a minute knows that the Ballantyne area, wealthier than Mecklenburg County as a whole, isn’t the place to find an affordable apartment if you’re a hotel housekeeper, a fry cook, a landscaper — anyone making less than $15 or so an hour.

But back in 1991, when the affluent mega-neighborhood was still a gleam in a developer’s eye, Mecklenburg County commissioners approved a document that suggested a new era of mixed-income housing in south Charlotte.

The “Standards for the Development of Ballantyne” document, approved with the project’s rezoning, stated the developer’s intention to build a variety of housing for rent or sale, “priced to accommodate all levels of income represented

by Ballantyne’s workforce.”

Some lower-priced houses were built, but nothing for lowwage workers. And Ballantyne, Aerial view of Ballantyne (Photo Credit: The Charlotte Observer) with million-dollar homes but no subsidized housing develIn one way, though, Charlotte stands out. In 2014, opments, became another a groundbreaking study of U.S. social mobility ranked chapter in Charlotte’s history of affordable housing that Charlotte last, 50th among 50 of America’s largest cities. never happened.

The study revealed that children here who were born poor This history stretches back to 1960s urban renewal, when mostly stay poor, that Charlotte wasn’t the opportunityCharlotte conducted an epic tear-down of low-cost housing rich place many citizens assumed. It was, in fact, the occupied by black people, then failed to replace much of it. opposite — a city rife with “Adequate housing for economic inequality. A local low-income residents task force tagged a lack of is perhaps the most affordable housing as a pressing single need in major cause.

Charlotte,” a Charlotte Today, spurred by that Observer editorial delast-place social mobility rankclared in 1968. ing, Charlotte has launched The story continues the most intense push for affordable housing in its history. today, as the Lynx Blue Line zips past thousands of new In November, voters approved a $50 million Housing luxury apartments but few affordable ones, even though a Trust Fund bond, more than triple the $15 million bonds city policy encouraged affordable housing along the route. of the past. A Foundation for the Carolinas campaign has Charlotte’s shortage is now described as a crisis, with an nearly matched that $50 million with private gifts. Banks estimated deficit of 34,000 below-market units. Most are and other institutions have pledged nearly $100 million in needed for people making 60 percent or less of the area’s land, down-payment assistance and below-market housing median income, which is $79,000 for a family of four. This loans to developers. County commissioners, who usually deficit likely underestimates actual needs, housing profesleave most housing issues to city government, just allocated sionals say, because older, cheaper apartments are being $11 million for rent subsidies. demolished or upgraded faster than they can be replaced.

This cash infusion offers Charlotte the chance to expand Charlotte has added an average of 312 city-subsidized units existing programs and try new solutions — paying developa year over the past decade, according to a recent report. ers to preserve older, affordable apartments, buying land The city’s popularity exacerbates this shortage, as for future housing, developing a metrics system to track growth outpaces construction, driving up prices. Local progress. But it also begs the question: What took so long? rents have climbed 45 percent since 2010 and now averBlame the shortage partly on circumstances beyond age more than $1,100 a month. In many ways, these probCharlotte’s control. U.S. cities once relied on federal monlems, fueled by stagnant wages and gentrification, mirror ey to subsidize their low-cost housing, but in the 1980s, housing shortages in urban areas around the world.

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the Reagan Administration and Congress gutted the housing budget, which never recovered.

The federally funded Charlotte Housing Authority now serves about 16,000 residents with its apartments and housing vouchers, only 500 more than in 1999, when the city had 300,000 fewer people.

Also, North Carolina doesn’t give local governments the authority to take actions other cities and states use to promote economic equity — requiring developers to include affordable units and prohibiting landlords from automatically rejecting tenants who pay rent with housing vouchers, for example.

Housing activists argue that state legislators’ unwillingness to allow such policies obstructs real reform.

But Charlotte is at fault, too, they say. The city, with its worldclass ambitions, has long measured its progress in skyscrapers and professional sports teams, not poverty reduction.

Over the years, it has convened housing task forces, hired consultants, received reports, then repeatedly failed to follow their recommendations.

Also, until recently, few city leaders acknowledged institutional racism’s role in shaping housing patterns and creating a racial wealth gap that holds even among the poor. Nationally, an average white household living near the poverty line typically has $18,000 in wealth, while a similar black household has a median wealth near zero, according to a 2018 report by Duke University’s William Darity Jr. and others.

“Without acknowledging the racial component, people foster the stereotype that assistance with housing is a handout to the unworthy,” says Peter Kelly, a founder of Equitable Communities CLT, which advocates for affordable housing. The stereotype makes it easier to ignore the problem. It also helps drive fierce neighborhood opposition to subsidized apartments.

Today, as Charlotte attempts a course correction, housing advocates and elected officials lament recent decisions — a failure to reserve land for affordable housing along light rail, sales of surplus property that could have been used for housing, deals with developers that should have included affordable housing units.

“There’s this mentality, we should be nice to the developers,” says Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt. “There’s an unwillingness to push for more.”

These recent missed opportunities are only the latest.

The tear-down era

It was a February evening in 1960 when Vernon Sawyer, director of Charlotte’s Urban Redevelopment

to 1925, but remembered Commission, stood before some 150 resilocally as the owner of dents of the city’s Brooklyn neighborhood Morrocroft, a dairy farm and attempted to reassure them. “When estate that sprawled over the time comes to move,” he promised, several thousand acres in “you’ll be given help in finding good what’s now south Charlotte. homes you can afford.”

When those acres passed Afterward, Sawyer confided to a to grandchildren, real estate Charlotte News reporter covering the became the family business. meeting that he’d been nervous. No By the time the family anwonder. He was overseeing Charlotte’s nounced Ballantyne, they’d urban renewal, the biggest facelift in city already developed a good history. Brooklyn, the heart of the black chunk of south Charlotte — community, was the first area slated for subdivisions, office builddemolition. ings, retail around SouthPark In Charlotte, inadequate housing has Mall — with acreage carved never been a race-blind issue. During slavfrom the estate. Ballantyne ery, area plantations housed enslaved black took the last of the undevelpeople in primitive quarters. After emancioped land. pation, these people had to find shelter.

Today, Ballantyne is It’s hard to find sources documenting the upscale address of the plight of newly freed people around 25,000 residents, a corpoCharlotte, says Willie Griffin, the Levine rate office park, a country Museum of the New South’s historian. club and golf course, and But a 1964 history, Frenise Logan’s “The The Ballantyne, the luxury Negro in North Carolina, 1876-1894,” dehotel where President scribes conditions families likely endured Obama stayed during the — one-room, dirt-floor houses furnished 2012 Democratic National with no more than a straw mattress and Convention in Charlotte. table, well water contaminated by sewBut like most of south age, a lack of decent clothing, food and Charlotte, it’s an affordable firewood. Logan quotes a New England February 1970: A bulldozer pushes over the first house in Brooklyn, an old Charlotte neighborhood, to make way housing desert. woman writing about these conditions for urban renewal. (Photo Credit: The Charlotte Observer) This was what housing in Wilmington in 1880: “I have visited advocates had feared. At scores and hundreds of houses huddled a 1991 rezoning hearing, in festering heaps under every hill and on Ted Fillette, now retired, was a young lawyer with the Louise Woods who later became a school board member, every alley; it is impossible to look…in any direction and Legal Aid Society of Mecklenburg County assigned to submitted a letter signed by eight activists requesting not be nauseated by them.” monitor the city’s compliance. “People weren’t getting their that the Ballantyne proposal include “a section of affordWhat we know about Charlotte specifically is that by rights,” he says. “Either they were paying more than they able moderate- and low-income housing,” according to an 1890, former slaves and their descendants had settled in could afford or being placed in housing that was substanObserver story. several areas, including Brooklyn, also known as Second dard.” He took city officials to court four times to enforce Woods and other school advocates saw mixed-income Ward, the southern quadrant of uptown Charlotte. compliance. He prevailed each time. housing as the city’s best shot at naturally integrating By the 1950s, Brooklyn had become the heart of the Also volunteering for Legal Aid was Tom Ross, then neighborhoods and schools. Charlotte-Mecklenburg black community, a city within a city, populated with a Davidson College student. Ross, former president of schools were still under federal order to desegregate, still homes, businesses, schools and churches. Some homes Davidson College and the University of North Carolina using busing to integrate. were good quality, owned by teachers and business ownsystem, heads the Volcker Alliance, a nonprofit working for Booming growth meant new suburban schools in ers, but much of Brooklyn’s housing was substandard effective management of government. mostly white areas. These created longer bus rides that white-owned rentals, shanties lacking indoor plumbing For years, Ross has explained his decision to pursue a strained the system’s complicated logistics. Busing and and furnaces. law career with a story about his work with Legal Aid. He’d magnet schools didn’t seem enough to preserve integraBy 1960, the city had decided Brooklyn had to go. been assigned to visit addresses on a city-provided list of tion. (In 1999, a federal judge would cancel the desegreThe initial aim of urban renewal was to replace houses for displaced residents to make sure they were gation order.) substandard dwellings with decent housing. But in many in decent shape. “The law required that before they tore Responding to calls for affordable housing, Harris cities, including Charlotte, the federal program evolved down somebody’s house, they had to relocate them into assured commissioners he planned to build for various into a vehicle to remove black people from valuable land housing that met the housing code,” he says. income levels, with some homes starting around $90,000 adjacent to downtown. Providing housing for displaced He discovered what he describes as “a mountain of to $110,000, about $169,000 to $207,000 in today’s dollars. families became, at best, a secondary goal. housing code violations.” And that wasn’t all. Some adAt the public hearing, one woman reacted: “That’s not in Brooklyn’s destruction displaced more than 1,000 dresses on his list simply didn’t exist. any way low- to moderate-income.” families and launched a season of tear downs. Highway Ross says this was no mistake. It happened repeatedly.

A month later, county commissioners approved the construction also took homes, and the city used its new “It looked like a clear pattern.” rezoning, along with standards stating the developer’s 1962 housing code to condemn unfit, unsafe structures.

Litigation over Charlotte’s urban renewal continued intention to build rental and for-sale housing “priced Between 1963 and 1975, the city tore down more than into the late 1970s. Ultimately, the city agreed to build to accommodate all levels of income represented by 11,000 homes, according to a 1978 Observer story. Most seven small apartment complexes for people displaced by Ballantyne’s workforce.” were in black neighborhoods. urban renewal or housing code enforcement.

The document gives no other details. It doesn’t menCharlotte leaders balked at building new low-cost But Vernon Sawyer didn’t keep that promise he made tion low-cost or below-market housing, and the statement housing. In a 1960 article, Sawyer deemed new constructo Brooklyn residents in 1960. And in a 1980 interview with was only an intention, not a requirement. Harris says he tion unnecessary; “leading real estate agents” had assured the Observer, he admitted as much. The program’s major recalls a signed agreement committing his family to includhim the city’s existing supply was adequate. error, he said, was its failure to plan to house displaced ing affordable homes, and he says they made good on But by the early 1960s, Charlotte had fewer public people. Still, he said, “I’m convinced it turned out better that promise with about 160 homes priced below other housing apartments — 1,420 units — than smaller cities, than I had any right to expect when we started.”

Ballantyne houses. including Charleston, S.C., according to a 1962 Observer The least expensive, 75 starter homes, were built in a story. Its headline: “City Far Behind in Public Housing.” neighborhood called Ballantyne Meadows, off Ballantyne The federal government delayed Brooklyn’s demoliCommons Parkway near U.S. 521, he says. The small-lot tion until the city promised to build 600 public units — By the 1990s, urban renewal was history. Charlotte houses range from about 1,300 to more than 1,800 square Earle Village and Edwin Towers. Those weren’t enough. newcomers wouldn’t have guessed that the uptown area feet and originally sold in 1998-99 between $111,000 and The Observer reported on relocated families unable that included Marshall Park, First Baptist Church and $176,500, according to real estate records. to pay their new, higher rent and utilities. In 1968, an various government buildings had been a thriving black “We ended up selling up to policemen, firemen, posteditorial about the city’s housing shortage scolded: “The neighborhood known as Brooklyn. Mecklenburg County men, guys who drove garbage trucks, lots of city employCity Council and its bashful handmaiden, the Housing was growing, especially in the southern suburbs, where ees,” Harris says. “The down payment on those houses Authority, acted for many years as if public housing were developers unveiled plans in 1991 for a 1,764-acre develwas almost nothing.” socialistic and dangerous.” opment that the Observer described as “one of the most Ballantyne’s development marked a first attempt in Demolitions continued into the 1970s, as urban reambitious ever envisioned for Charlotte-Mecklenburg.”

Charlotte to address affordability in a large, mixed-use newal expanded to the black neighborhoods of First Ward The developers, brothers Johnny and Cameron Harris development, says planning consultant Walter Fields, and Greenville. This time, however, residents sued the city and their sister, Sara Harris Bissell, now deceased, were in federal court and won a promise of decent replacement the grandchildren of the late Cameron Morrison. Morrison housing that included rent subsidies. see Housing on 10 is best known as North Carolina’s governor from 1921

Affordable intentions in Ballantyne

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continued from page 9 when it was inexpensive — land that could have been donated or sold at a discount to developers to make affordable units economically feasible.

“We land bank for other things all the time — whether it’s schools, whether it’s parks. You name it,” says the Rev. Ricky Woods, pastor of First Baptist Church West.

(The city did sell a 16-acre parcel at Scaleybark Road at a discount to Pappas Properties for a mixed-use project that was to include 80 affordable housing units. But the project’s developers, Peter A. Pappas and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership, failed three times to win state tax credits for the project.

Last year, Pappas returned 2.3 acres to the city.)

Ron Tober, the former CATS director who oversaw the Blue Line project, says affordable housing just wasn’t a high priority when the A light rail train passes through New Bern Street at Rail Crossing Lane station heading to uptown Charlotte. line was planned. “I don’t rememBy 1993, Arthur Griffin, a school (Photo Credit: The Charlotte Observer) ber much if any conversation about board member, was floating a new affordable housing,” he says. The school integration proposal that an line, conceived as a transportaObserver editorial described as “a tion and economic development able housing,” according to David Ravin, president and simple but appealing idea” — use poliproject, was controversial, criticized by some Republicans CEO of Northwood Ravin. cies and incentives, such as low-interest loans, to promote as a money-wasting boondoggle. Some people doubted Meanwhile, the Charlotte Housing Authority has been less expensive housing in south Charlotte. it would succeed. “I think people would have blown up if working to persuade more landlords across the city to acGriffin, who later chaired the school board and they’d land banked.” cept federally funded rent vouchers. So far, in Ballantyne, Charlotte’s Black Political Caucus, also suggested buildBut Tober agrees the city should have land banked for one family is using a voucher to help pay the rent. ing affordable housing on surplus land that Charlotteits second light rail line. The Blue Line Extension, which runs Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) had acquired for schools. from uptown to UNC Charlotte, opened last year. “There “We owned so much land where we could have made a should have been more done to buy property around the difference,” he says. stations,” he says.

His proposal went nowhere. When planners prepared a In 2001, as the Charlotte Area Transit System planned City Council members then weren’t as supportive as 1994 report responding to his suggestions, two City Council the Lynx Blue Line, its first light rail project, City Council they are now, however, says Pamela Wideman, who overmembers labeled the ideas “disturbing” and “scary,” accordapproved a policy that, on first read, suggested a win for sees the city’s affordable housing programs. ing to an Observer story. affordable housing.

From 2005 to 2013, for instance, Michael Barnes, repOne council member, Mike Jackson, said encouraging The city would “aggressively pursue opportunities” to resented the City Council’s District 4 in northeast Charlotte, integration near schools violated “inalienable and Goddevelop affordable units near its South Boulevard transit which contains much of the Blue Line Extension route and given” property rights, forcing people to live in certain stations, the policy said, encouraging a minimum of 5 includes lower-income neighborhoods such as Hidden neighborhoods. Another member, Don Reid, asked: “When percent and maximum of 25 percent below-market units Valley. He opposed new affordable housing in his district, did the school system decide that we have to have affordin any multi-family development near the stations. worried it would exacerbate problems that come with able housing and integrated housing?”

There’s a compelling argument for low-cost housing concentrations of poverty. In an email, Barnes affirmed his In a memo, Mayor Richard Vinroot said the approach along light rail: Subsidized apartments give a double assist position and declined further comment. sounded like “social engineering.” “In my opinion our comto low-income families trying to climb out of poverty, alDebra Campbell, then Charlotte’s planning director, munity will not — and should not— take ‘race conscious’ aclowing them to save on transportation while ensuring they had encouraged council members to think long term and tions ‘to require or encourage’ integrated neighborhoods,” spend no more than the recommended maximum of 30 promote housing along the rail line, according to a 2012 he wrote. “That is a matter of free choice and economics.” percent of their income on rent and utilities.

UNC Charlotte Urban Institute story. She pointed out that Unmentioned were government policies that had segBut the city’s policy didn’t attract affordable housrail stations elsewhere had lured high-quality developregated Charlotte in the first place. ing. Instead, the Blue Line became a magnet for luxury ment, raising property values and putting areas near staGriffin also couldn’t get enough support to build affordapartments equipped with fitness centers, pet spas and tions out of reach for low-income families. able housing on surplus school land. In 2015, long after lap pools, where two-bedrooms often rent for more than Barnes’ opposition illustrates a fundamental difficulty he’d left the board, CMS sold 32 acres of extra land around $2,000 a month. with subsidized housing. Elected officials — and the citiBallantyne Elementary, at a profit, to a developer. This was Today, more than 6,200 units have been built along the zens they represent — often don’t want it in their districts, despite a last-minute attempt by the nonprofit Charlotteline. Of those, exactly 100 are below-market units. They’re regardless of what it looks like or who it serves.

Mecklenburg Housing Partnership to postpone the sale so located near Arrowood Station, in the mixed-income Today, Wideman concedes the city missed opportuthe group could bid on the property.

South Oak Crossing Apartments, built by the Charlottenities along light rail. “We didn’t have the sophisticated “We hadn’t heard about the sale until it was way too Mecklenburg Housing Partnership. South Oak’s subsidized thinking we have today,” she says, “nor did we have the late,” says Julie Porter, the partnership’s executive direcunits rent for between $363 and $965, depending on size political will.” But the city is still planning those 80 subsitor. She says she wishes the partnership had been more and renter income. dized apartments at Scaleybark Station with the Charlotteproactive. “It would have been a good opportunity.”

In hindsight, this result is unsurprising. The city’s poliMecklenburg Housing Partnership as developer.

Today, the Ballantyne community has a mix of housing cy actually made it harder to build affordable apartments Construction has also begun on affordable housing styles, including apartments and townhomes, but median near light rail than elsewhere in Charlotte, but came with along the Blue Line Extension — Platform Lofts, 198 units prices — and incomes — exceed the county average. In no additional incentives. To be eligible for city subsidies, at Old Concord Road for people making 60 percent or less 2016, the median household income in Ballantyne was for instance, developers had to reserve 30 percent of of area median income. Another affordable project is beabout $100,000, compared with $59,000 for the county. their units for tenants who earned 30 percent or less of ing planned at University City Station.

Less than 10 percent of its residents were black, compared the area median income. These units, which are badly But housing activists say both Charlotte’s Housing with a county total of more than 30 percent. needed, rent at such low prices that they require more Trust Fund and affordable housing developers could The land around Ballantyne Elementary is now filled funding than developers can secure through traditional have saved millions — and created more affordable with houses valued in the mid- to high-$300,000s. Those funding sources. units — if the city had bought land along the Blue Line Ballantyne Meadows starter homes are valued in the midThe policy also required a mix of affordable and Extension years ago. to high-$200,000s. market-rate units in the same building, a laudable goal As expected, rents along the line are up, and in most In May, Northwood Office, which owns Ballantyne that also complicated developers’ efforts to get tax credits areas, land costs are rising. Between 2010 and 2017, for Corporate Park, announced plans for new offices and a and financing. instance, land prices near the line climbed 120 percent luxury apartment tower with as many 2,000 apartments.

The city’s big mistake, housing activists say, was its at University City Station and 100 percent at Parkwood Northwood intends “to include a commitment to affordfailure to buy land along the proposed route years ago

the former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission land planning manager who worked with the family on Ballantyne. “I think it speaks well of the Harris family that they put that in as part of the development to address concerns,” he says.

Whether housing is affordable depends, of course, on whether it consumes less than 30 percent of a family’s budget, the maximum recommended.

Those Ballantyne Meadows homes were a bargain by Ballantyne standards, but too expensive for service workers on the low-wage end of Ballantyne’s workforce.

The 75 starter homes sold originally for a median price of $137,500. That was just below the 2000 median value of Mecklenburg County’s owner-occupied homes — $139,000.

An ‘appealing idea’

Regrets along the Blue Line

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Station. Those percentages are at least twice the land cost increases for the rest of the city, according to data compiled

by UNC Charlotte researchers.

A difference in the possibilities?

It’s 7:30 on an April morning. Charlotte’s Crisis Assistance Ministry hasn’t opened, but dozens of people— mostly women, mostly black — are already lined up, waiting to get help with rent and utility bills. They hold pastdue notices and eviction papers. Some grasp the hands of small children. One carries a copy of Michelle Obama’s memoir, “Becoming.” Another cradles a baby, giving the infant a bottle.

On any given day, nearly 80 percent of the people in this line have jobs. This morning, there’s a woman employed part-time at both Chuck E. Cheese and Dollar Tree, a woman who installs new wiring and lighting in old apartments, a certified nursing assistant who regularly pulls double shifts. They work. They don’t earn enough to cover their bills.

This queue outside Crisis Assistance Ministry, just north of Uptown, has been around for decades, longer than much of the skyline, a daily testament to economic and racial inequities that can seem inevitable.

As Charlotte aims to solve, or at least mitigate, its affordable housing crisis, it will need both money and cultural change — more employers who pay living wages, more landlords who accept housing vouchers and more neighborhoods that welcome subsidized housing, especially in south Charlotte.

Brian Collier, executive vice president at The Foundation for the Carolinas, has championed efforts to address economic inequality since joining the foundation in 2007. He acknowledges a widespread perception that city task forces yield few results.

But now, he sees fresh political will. He attributes the change to the city’s last-place economic mobility ranking, which thrust affordable housing into the spotlight, and also

violent protests following the 2016 police shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott. Those protests exposed a depth of anger over inequality that shocked many residents — and got their attention. Together, he says, these developments have created “a difference in the possibilities.”

In 2016, an Urban Land Institute report on Charlotte’s affordable housing efforts concluded that the city “does not have or use as many tools as it could to make more progress.”

Today, there’s no question the city is using more tools.

The City Council recently gave a developer money to help renovate Sharon Oaks Apartments in east Charlotte, the first project in a vital effort to preserve what’s called “naturally occurring affordable housing.” It recently approved transit-area development regulations that offer developers height bonuses for including affordable units, an incentive that could produce subsidized housing along light rail.

Also, Charlotte’s new strategies include land banking — buying and reserving land to donate or sell for affordable housing. And Mecklenburg County’s manager recently proposed using surplus public land for affordable housing, the same idea Arthur Griffin floated in the early 1990s.

County commissioners were enthusiastic.

It will take years to see the full fruits of these efforts, to gauge the progress. Continued growth, high land prices, out-of-town investors — all these factors make Charlotte’s task more difficult. But one thing is clear: Until now, the city never tried this hard. : :

More from other Charlotte Journalism Collaborative media partners The Charlotte Observer and WCNC-TV produced videos as a support to the longer story seen here. Visit the web links below to learn more and to view the online content.

The Charlotte Observer video of Brooklyn neighborhood redevelopment (March 2019). youtu.be/U101BoJAO4w.

WCNC-TV video of Charlotte’s affordable housing issues from newscast on June 17, 2019. youtu.be/sYNw3FZGB3E.

Pam Kelley, a Charlotte journalist, is author of “Money Rock: A Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race, and Ambition in the New South.”

This story was produced by the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, a partnership of six media companies working together in an effort started by the Solutions Journalism Network and funded

by The Knight Foundation.

June 28-July 11, 2019

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All Are Included, Accepted, Embraced by Us Spiritual Reflections

BY Rev. Dr. John Cleghorn | Guest Contributor

O

n her last Sunday morning with our congregation, Sasha stood before us resplendent in a lovely dress and a new haircut.

Even as her voice quivered and farewell tears slipped down her face, she presented herself with a poise and outer joy that came with the anticipation of starting over elsewhere.

Finally, Sasha was free to be herself.

Sasha had shown up at church a year earlier. She took her place in the pews alongside the teachers, bankers, plumbers, lawyers, short order cooks, shift workers and retirees who make up our varied congregation. She enthusiastically joined the church and our adult Sunday school class, offering meaningful insights, the wisdom of life and impressive Biblical literacy.

A banker with international responsibilities, she even led a class on Hinduism based on the knowledge she’d gained on regular business trips and long stays in India. The congregation embraced and respected her.

One day, she called to make an appointment with me.

She had something important to discuss. Over coffee, she told me she had made a big decision. Up until to then, you see, we had known Sasha as a man. We were part of the world that viewed her as a man because that was what we saw outwardly, not how Sasha felt. But now she could no longer live in the body she was born with. The news was that the person sitting opposite me over coffee had chosen to transition. That person had always felt like Sasha anyway, always. Now the body would catch up with the soul.

We talked through the upcoming surgeries and the need for lots and lots of prayer from the congregation.

As we talked, I saw a person yearning and eager to be at peace with herself, with the world and with her God. Despite the physical difficulties and recovery ahead, I saw hope and the anticipation of the inner joy that would come when one’s body finally matches their being.

Because Sasha’s family in Charlotte had rejected her, she had asked to be transferred to another city. After her move, the church prayed for her and Sasha’s employer went to extraordinary lengths to support her through her transition, including orienting her employees in India in how to understand her choice and support her when she returned to work. We still stay in touch. The congregation holds her in prayer, though we are lesser without her.

Love has no finish line.

Less than a decade after its courageous votes to embrace gay and lesbian people fully, as officers and in permitting same-gender weddings, the Presbyterian Church (USA) last year took perhaps an even more bold step toward inclusivity. Approving an overture from the Presbytery of New Castle, the 223rd General Assembly affirmed the “full dignity and humanity of people of all gender identities.”

“Standing in the conviction that all people are created in the image of God and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for all people,” the assembly affirmed its commitment to “the full welcome, acceptance, and inclusion of transgender people, people who identify as gender nonbinary, and people of all gender identities.”

Back at the church I serve, a compassionate, visionary and determined group of elders and members had moved months earlier to help Caldwell be a place of refuge and healing for yet one more set of oppressed children of God. In 2017, they organized a multi-part series on understanding the transgender experience and invited other faith communities to walk with us as we learned. Then, last summer we brought in a local non-profit leader to walk us through what it means to be non-binary.

So it was that in the fall of 2018, multiple Caldwell committees began consideration of several recommendations from our Touchpoint Committee, which advo-

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cates for broader understanding of the LGBTQ experience. After study by the Worship, Missions and Justice and Discovery and Engagement Committees, the session adopted the following: That Caldwell strive to make the language used in worship more inclusive.

That Caldwell use these language changes as teaching points during worship.

That Caldwell strive to use more inclusive language in its website and in other online and printed communications.

All of this was to advance our mission to make church safe again for those whom the church had wounded. After its unlikely resurrection a decade ago, this urban congregation grew into a 325-member, intersectional community of believers and seekers, black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, highly educated and high school dropout, from many backgrounds in faith and from neighborhoods across our four-county metro area.

Lisa Raymaker, the remarkably knowledgeable, focused and capable elder and LGBTQ advocate who led us through this process, made these points in a letter to the congregation.

“People who identify as LGBTQ are looking and listening for certain things in order to feel comfortable and fully welcomed in a space. People who identify as trans and non-binary, especially, listen for language that respects their gender identity and look for people who accept them as they are….

“We are working to make the language we use to refer to each other more inclusive. An example could be instead of saying ‘brothers and sisters in Christ’ we may say ‘beloved’ or ‘family in Christ.’ Instead of inviting boys and girls to the children’s sermon, we may say ’young people’ or ‘children.’ This is one more way for us to practice radical welcome, and show God’s unconditional love for and acceptance of all people.”

As important as anything, we remind ourselves again and again that this is an aspiration. We will get it wrong, a lot, at first — me as much as any as I try to rewire my mind and heart to new verbal patterns after a half-century so deeply conditioned by my experience as an affluent, straight, white, privileged male whose adversity pales in comparison to many.

“This is a work in progress and we will learn together as we go,” Lisa reminds us. “We all still maintain our own identities, whatever they may be. Now we are just sharing our space with others.”

Why go to the trouble?

We recognize that others beyond our part of the body of Christ will vigorously disagree. “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” the trope goes, much less what critics will say about what they perceive as the irrational randomness of gender fluidity. Others will say this only advances the identity politics they perceive as leading to

our nation’s deep divisions. We’ve been regularly picketed by the Klan before. They may come back.

Why risk it? Why go to the trouble?

Because, as the General Assembly affirmed last summer, the church has “participated in systemic and targeted discrimination against transgender people, and we have been complicit in violence against them.”

Because God’s call for justice doesn’t leave out any of God’s children.

And, because lives are at stake.

Consider: Transgender, queer and nonbinary people can lose up to 90 percent of their relationships with friends and family when they live as their authentic selves.

Transgender people are four times more likely to live in poverty.

Forty to 50 percent of transgender youth will have attempted suicide by the age of 20, compared to 1.6 percent of the general population.

Seventy-eight percent of transgender youth experience some sort of harassment at school.

Transgender and non-binary people, especially youth, who have at least one support system (family or school or church or other organization) reduce their risk of suicide to 4 percent.

We understand that this walk is not for everyone. Many PC (USA) churches choose not to conduct same-gender marriages. Others condemn LGBTQ people outright. Still others want to welcome God’s gay and lesbian children, but they confess their lack of familiarity or are still figuring out all that is involved in turning the words on the sign, “All are welcome,” into reality in the pews. Organizations like the Covenant Network of Presbyterians and More Light Presbyterians stand ready with advice and resources for those who want to begin or advance this journey.

What our congregation has experienced in a decade of expanding God’s call to inclusivity and hospitality, as well as advocacy and public witness, is that our towns and cities are full of LGBTQ people who desperately seek a community of faith where they can walk with God alongside others and where they can serve as the hands and feet of Christ without judgment or rejection. What we’ve seen is that, once they feel accepted and healed, these disciples become tireless, deeply committed workers in God’s vineyard.

Since Sasha, we’ve been joined in worship by other transgender and non-binary people. Last summer, a college intern felt comfortable enough to begin using the “they” pronoun as they embraced their self-understanding as a queer person. We continue to learn and share the gospel, as did the Biblical evangelist Phillip in Acts 8, who was asked by the Ethiopian eunuch (banker to the queen, another who did not fit systemic sexual norms) to explain the scriptures.

Sasha has progressed with the surgeries involved in her transition and has received a promotion to vice president at the bank. But it is her last Sunday with us in Charlotte that we will most remember as she stood in front of the congregation to say goodbye.

“God loves me, not because of who I am, but because of who God is,” she said. “So does our Creator ask too much of Creation to love all humanity, not because of who humanity is, but because of who we are as children of God?” : : Rev. Dr. John Cleghorn is pastor of Caldwell Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, N.C., and a director of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians. This article was first published in the Presbyterian Outlook and is reprinted with permission.

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A Look at Queer History that Changed the World Out in Print

BY terri schlichenmeyer | CONTRIBUTING WRITER “Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall”

by James Polchin ©2019, Counterpoint Press $26.00 256 pages “The Stonewall Riots” edited by Marc Stein ©2019, New York University Press $35.00 341 pages “The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets”

by Gayle E. Pitman ©2019, Abrams Books for Young Readers $17.99 208 pages “Out in Time”

by Perry N. Halkitis ©2019, Oxford University Press $34.95 288 pages “When Brooklyn Was Queer”

by Hugh Ryan ©2019, St. Martin’s Press $29.99 308 pages

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F

ifty years ago, it was a busy summer.

Nationally, everyone was glued to their TVs to watch men walk on the moon. Woodstock called to every hippie here, there and abroad. Charles Manson terrified Californians. And gay and lesbian folks watched closely as a little bar in Greenwich Village became a flash-point for rights.

If you are over age 55, you might have memories of the Stonewall Riots; vivid ones that may’ve become gauzy; or sketchy ones, perhaps, from the viewpoint of a child. If you’re under age 55, the Stonewall Riots are undoubtedly just a story to you, and there’s a lot for you

to learn. To mark the anniversary of this event that altered so many lives, look for these new books…

Beginning in the years before the Stonewall Riots, “Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall” by James Polchin takes a look at the crimes committed against gay men, long before equality and rights were a notion, let alone even being on the table.

Murder, of course, lines the pages of this book but you’ll also read stories of harassment, assault, and minor crimes

that were embellished so that they could be charged as more serious. Polchin also looks at how criminal acts committed by and aimed at LGBTQ people came under controversy when attention was paid to one minority group’s safety, and not to that of another group. This, the embedded presence of many (in)famous criminals, and other stories lightly linked to Stonewall make it a unique and interesting book.

Because memories fade, opinions differ, and people die, “The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History,” edited by see Queer History on 20

Stonewall in the Arts

Films, Music, Literature Highlights the Gay Rights Movement

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his month marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, in which queer and trans people in New York City launched the modern Gay Rights Movement by fighting back against police violence. Over the last half-decade, the cultural narrative of the Stonewall Riots has become whitewashed, and pop cultural depictions have obscured the central role played by black transgender women in particular. Below are some films and collections of music that highlight the voices and experiences of those actually involved with the riot and the defiant, embattered queer culture that birthed it.

“Pay It No Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson” Marsha P. Johnson was a black transgender woman at the vanguard of the Stonewall Riots. Although Johnson’s erasure from the popular cultural narrative of Stonewall has been somewhat remedied in recent years, many LGBTQ folks are still unaware of her prolific work on behalf of her transgender and queer siblings in 1960s New York City, including her founding of the transgender advocacy organization Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. “Pay It No Mind” features interviews with Johnson shortly before her death in 1992, painting a vivid portrait of her role as “the mayor of Christopher Street.”

BY Camilla K. Cannon| QNotes CONTRIBUTING WRITER “Songs of the Stonewall” The non-profit Stonewall Rebellion Veterans Association has published a list of songs featured on the Stonewall Inn’s 1969 jukebox collection.

Featuring tunes from Barbara Streisand, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder, the list is an opportunity to slip into the past, partying as the rebels of Stonewall themselves did. bit.ly/2WTNq6T. : :

“Paris Is Burning” Although set in the late 1980s, roughly 20 years after the Stonewall Riots, “Paris Is Burning” follows the story of young queer and transgender people of color in the New York ball culture scene, a population that was also at the center of the riots. Like their predecessors in the 1960s, the subjects of “Paris Is Burning” craft a fiercely supportive and innovative culture in the midst of a hostile city and uncertain future.

“Lavender Country” Lavender Country, which bills itself as “the world’s first gay country band” released their self-titled debut album in 1973, drawing inspiration largely from the Stonewall Riots. With songs like “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears” and “Back in the Closet Again,” Lavender Country is a fearless and righteously angry album, draped in twangy guitars and drippy, drawling vocals.

“Storme: The Lady of the Jewel Box” Filmed in 1987, “Storme: The Lady of the Jewel Box” follows the life of famous male impersonator Storme DeLarverie, who is said to have thrown the first punch against police at Stonewall. The film features Storme herself reflecting on her long history as an integral part of the black queer performance scene beginning in the 1940s.

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Being Mouse

An Interview with Murray Bartlett of ‘Tales of the City’

BY Gregg Shapiro | Guest Contributor

A

recent internet meme featured “Harry Potter” series author J.K. Rowling bemoaning the difficulty of killing off so many characters with “Game of Thrones” series author George R.R. Martin calling her “adorable” in response.

Gay writer Armistead Maupin has more in common with Rowling and Martin than you might expect. Maupin, like Rowling and Martin, is the author of a popular book series.

In Maupin’s case, it’s the beloved queer “Tales of The City” sequence, which began in 1978 and concluded in 2014.

As in the case of Rowling and Martin, Maupin populated his books with a wide assortment of characters, some loveable and some despicable. Also, over the years, Maupin has killed off characters, a creative quality that he shares with Rowling and Martin. Last, but not least, the “Tales of the City” books, like those of Rowling’s and Martin’s, have made the leap from the page to the screen. In 1993, PBS presented the launch of the “Tales of the City” series starring Olympia Dukakis as Anna Madrigal, the legendary transgender landlord of 28 Barbary Lane, and Laura Linney as Mary Ann Singleton, the naïve young woman from Ohio who was forever changed when she relocated to San Francisco.

While the groundbreaking series was well-received by critics and fans of the books, boosting both Linney and Dukakis’ careers, the raciness of the material didn’t sit well with conservatives controlling the PBS purse-strings.

“More Tales of the City” and “Further Tales of the City” aired on Showtime in 1998 and 2001, respectively, with Linney and Dukakis among the few actors reprising their roles. In June of 2019, Netflix presents the return of the series, also starring Linney and Dukakis, which opens with the occa-

qomunity

qonexions space starting at $22: call qnotes for details 704.531.9988

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sion of Anna’s 90th birthday and brings characters, old and new, together once again. Handsome, out, Australian actor Murray Bartlett is the third actor to assume the role of Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, and he is sensational in the role.

He effortlessly brings everything we’ve ever loved about Michael to life in the most vivid and honest way. I spoke with him shortly before the June series debut.

Gregg Shapiro: Murray, what was it about the character of Michael “Mouse” Tolliver in “Tales of The City” that made you want to portray him?

Murray Bartlett: I love the “Tales of the City” books. I have a huge affection for all of the characters, including Michael, from the ‘90s. I guess what I love about him, particularly now, is that he has been through a lot. He went through the AIDS crisis and thought he was going to die and lost a lot of the people that he loved. He faced his own mortality. He went through a hugely challenging and transformative time, and he’s managed to keep this beautiful kind of buoyant spirit that he has, this boyish spirit. I really love that about him. It’s difficult to do that. I think a lot of people become cynical and jaded. He’s definitely come through a little damaged [laughs], and he’s definitely got some baggage, but that buoyant spirit is still intact, and I really love that.

GS: What does being part of such a beloved series, including both the previous TV productions on PBS and Showtime, mean to you?

MB: It’s been beloved to me [laughs]. I have such a personal connection to it. I think for many of us that saw it in the

beginning, or came to the books in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and beyond, is that they really struck a chord that wasn’t being struck. These LGBTQ characters finding family and living a wonderful, joyful life, with all the trials and tribulations of their everyday lives. Fully fleshed out, real characters that were experiencing joy and pain. A trans character, like Anna Madrigal, that was not a tragic figure. She’s a wise, benevolent, compassionate, wonderful inspiring woman. I think it was groundbreaking at the time, and I think it’s still groundbreaking in that we’re still kind of at the beginning of LGBTQ representation on television and on film. Being part of that wave and being part of this beautiful world that Armistead created, that is so compassionate and human and full of love; I feel like we need more of that in the world always, and especially now. It feels like such a privilege to be part of that.

GS: Did you have an opportunity to meet and talk with Armistead during the Netflix production?

MB: Yes, absolutely! I had done this show, “Looking,” for HBO a few years ago and we were shooting in San Francisco. “Tales of the City” was very much a kind of mascot. The first night we arrived, me and a few of the other actors watched (the earlier version of) “Tales of the City” We met up with Armistead a few times. He became like our godfather. He was very sweet and generous. I had a little bit of a connection with him. He came and spent time with us on set (while making the new “Tales of the City”).

He’s the spirit of his books. He’s the personification of that.

A beautiful, compassionate, wonderful man. It was great for all of us to have him on set at times.

GS: What were the challenges and rewards of stepping into the role of Michael aka “Mouse,” a role played by two other actors in previous iterations of the series?

MB: I didn’t really think about that too much. Before we started, I went back and read all of the books. I tried to let Mouse jump off the page. Let Armistead give me Mouse through the books [laughs]. I think maybe one of the reasons I didn’t give it much thought is that two decades have gone in between.

A lot has happened. Mouse still has the same spirit, he’s still essentially the same guy, but he’s transformed in terms of all the stuff he’s gone through. I felt like, as happens after a couple of decades, you are a kind of reformed character in a lot of ways. I felt like I didn’t have to be too concerned about what had come before and just go back to the books and get the essence of him and run with it.

GS: What was it like to work with Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis?

MB: Just, you know, magical [laughs]. Complete joy and very surreal. Especially initially, because, I think I’d seen Olympia in things before, particularly “Moonstruck.” But I don’t think I’d seen Laura before I watched “Tales of the City.” I have a strong association with those women and those characters in “Tales of the City,” so it was very surreal being onset the first few times with them. They are those characters to me.

I was a little nervous because I admire them so much, and they’re such fantastic actors. You want to bring your best. So, there’s a little bit of nerves that come with that. But they’re so gracious and so lovely. There was something about the fact that they are those characters to me, and because they are such great actresses, the scene starts and you just go for the ride. They’re so wonderful to work with and those strong associations of those characters just kicked in for me.

GS: In the new version of “Tales of the City,” Michael is in a relationship with Ben (Charlie Barnett), a man much younger that he is. This aspect of their relationship comes up repeatedly, but never more than during the scene at the dinner party thrown by Michael’s ex,

identity and second gender identity and sexual identity and how we can express ourselves. Riding a wave into, hopefully, more openness. That has enormous value. We’re at a very delicate stage of navigating through that and we need to be very sensitive. The older generation, at least in that episode, can tend to gloss over that a little bit. I love the way the writer and our team did such a beautiful job of straddling those two perspectives, allowing you to see both of them without telling you what to think about it

Paul Gross (Brian Hawkins) (left) and Murray Bartlett (‘Mouse’ Tolliver) in a scene from Armistead Maupin’s ‘Tales of the City’ airing on Netflix. (Photo Credit: Katrina Symonds via Netflix)

Harrison (Matthew Risch), where Ben is given a gay history lesson. As a gay man yourself, how did that scene make you feel?

MB: I haven’t seen the show yet, but I love that episode. I think it’s so beautifully written, mostly because it doesn’t present a good and bad. It throws out the two perspectives of the older and younger generation, and it does such a beautiful job of not letting you take sides. You agree and disagree with both [laughs]. I think that that is a beautiful way to approach a fiery issue and conversation. To show both perspectives and let people make up their own minds. It also shows how complex it is. I feel like I understand where the older generation comes from, but I also understand where the younger generation comes from. They both have really good points, and they both need to listen to each other because they have a lot to learn from each other. All the stuff that the older generation went through was epic. It’s very important for younger queer people to understand what has come before. The older perspective comes from a place that is worth understanding. Likewise, the younger generation. We’re moving forward in terms of gender

GS: You mentioned the HBO series “Looking” in which you played Dom, which like “Tales of the City,” was also set in San Francisco. Can you please say something about that city means to you?

MB: I adore San Francisco. I came to San Francisco from Australia for the first time in the ‘90s for a visit. I think it was 1994. The guy I was staying with had the first season of “Tales of the City” on VHS [laughs], and he let me watch them. I fell in love with it. But it was completely intertwined with my initial impressions of San Francisco. I recognized a lot of the elements of “Tales of the City” in San Francisco in terms of community and the sense of family and a sense of belonging. A place where people could come and find those things.

Apart from the fact that it’s just a gorgeous city [laughs]. I was there recently and everywhere you turn there’s a beautiful view. There’s something about the spirit of San Francisco.

This latest iteration of “Tales of the City” addresses this new generation of the techie wave coming in. One of the beautiful things about San Francisco that I loved is this incredible diversity of expression, all these wonderful characters and people. But a lot of those people aren’t millionaires [laughs], and they can’t afford to live there anymore. It’s this interesting thing that San Francisco is going through now. How much of the old spirit can stay alive in this new, expensive phase.

GS: In “Tales of the City,” Michael had Mary Ann, and in “Looking,” Dom had Doris. Do you have a female best friend like Mary Ann or Doris in your life?

MB: Yes, absolutely! I have several. : :

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life

Our People: Lennie Gerber Civil Liberties Activist, Wife, Senior Community Leader

BY Camilla K. Cannon |qnotes staff WRITER

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ennie Gerber is best known as one of the plaintiffs, along with Pearl Berlin, her partner of 52 years, in the landmark 2014 gay marriage case Gerber et al. v. Cooper.

As a result of the case, U.S. District Court Judge William Osteen ruled North Carolina’s gay marriage ban unconstitutional. The life of Gerber and the life of the couple, however, is much more expansive than their involvement in the long legal battle for gay marriage. Over the course of her life, Gerber led a storied legal career, fighting for housing justice, consumer protection and the right of incarcerated women to be involved in their children’s lives.

Following Berlin’s death in 2018, in the bed where they slept together every night they were home, Gerber has honored her wife’s tenacity and drive by continuing her own activist career and ensuring that the lessons of their life are shared.

If you could gather everyone you love in one place for one night, what food would you serve and what music would you play?

We gathered all of our loved ones together for our 25th, 40th and 50th anniversaries, and Pearl’s 90th birthday. On each of these occasions we had about 40 to 50 people. So, we had them all catered. Food was heavy hors d’oeuvres, desserts and lots of wine. With crowds like that, we didn’t play music. If we had done so, it would have been classical.

You are a hero to many gay, lesbian and bisexual people across the country. What young LGBTQ activists or public figures inspire you today?

I don’t know many young people, let alone young LGBTQ activists. But, I greatly admire this trans kid I met when he was awarded the first Pearl Berlin Scholarship at the annual Guilford Green Foundation dinner. [From Guilford Green’s website: “Anthony Davis-Pait has demonstrated tremendous leadership in the LGBTQ community by presenting at conferences across N.C. about his experience as an openly trans student, helping organize the annual Alternative Prom for LGBTQ youth, and serving as a liaison to school administration on trans inclusivity.”]

At that same dinner, the speaker was a young transwoman in her 20s whom I greatly admire. Sarah McBride is the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign. I sat next to her that evening, and we talked

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a lot. I also read the book she has written, “Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality.”

The past decade has been a complex one for LGBTQ progress in the United States. Of course, gay marriage has been legalized in all 50 states, and public approval of LGBTQ people is higher than ever. However, there are also troubling developments: the post-2016 rise in hate crimes against LGBTQ people, especially transgender people of color, and the Trump administration’s attack on gay adoption rights and transgender service people. Do you worry we are losing ground in the fight for LGBTQ rights and dignity?

No! I find that the fight for gay and lesbian rights is over. Done!

Finished! Seriously, the acceptance these days is almost miraculous. Note the Pride flags flying all over the place, including from several U.S. embassies. People finally have learned that being gay is not just about two men having sex. I believe that because of the fight for marriage equality, people finally came to understand that being gay or lesbian is all about who we love. “Love” is a very positive picture.

But, the focus has shifted to trans people. That is where the fight is now, and I believe it will take some time for people to accept them. They have to meet trans people, and we need some TV stories about trans people, so people can see how normal they are.

What would 12-year-old Lennie be most surprised to know about current Lennie’s life?

Not much! I always was a tomboy who had crushes on female teachers (and, later, counselors). Maybe the biggest surprise would be that I have lived in the South for more than half of my adult life. Also, that I do not live in a big city, but have a house on a river, with woods between.

You and Pearl were together for more than 50 years and legally married for almost five. What advice do you have for maintaining a long, healthy relationship?

Live in the overlap. Pearl created that concept as she mused that we were both independent and dependent.

She also wrote: “Respect each other. Always look for and choose the overlap — the area where your tastes, desires, interests, likes, beliefs coincide.” Also, if you can, travel

together. When you are away from your normal routines, you have many extra decisions to make, every day. If you learn to make them together, your bond will deepen and it will carry over to everyday life. Finally, it is OK to have fights (audible, not physical). Just be sure to make up by bedtime. No carrying disagreements over to the next day.

One of your forms of service in recent years has been to encourage and advise LGBTQ seniors on creating advance directives to ensure that their wishes are followed if they become unable to advocate for themselves. Why do you think this issue is important?

Did your own experience with Pearl’s health problems before and during the court case inform your decision to help other LGBTQ seniors with this process?

I started doing such documents for the community in the early 1990s (when we both were healthy). Partners were not as accepted then, as they are now. And, there were no legal spouses. So, in times of sickness and, perhaps death, family took over and insisted on making the necessary decisions. Now, legally married couples usually can make decisions without these documents. However, a Health Care POA [Power of Attorney] still is a must. And, if you are not married, then the Health Care and Durable POAs are still a must. And, so is a will. When Pearl was sick near the end of her life, there never was any question that I had the right to be informed, make decisions, etc., because I was the legal spouse. MDs, nurses, everybody, accepted my presence at all MD visits, etc., and willingly conferred with me.

Who are some of your favorite LGBTQ authors and/or poets?

My friend, Janet Joyner, is my favorite LGBT poet.

Virginia Wolfe and Rita Mae Brown are two of my favorite novelists. And, of course Radclyffe Hall.

What is your perfect lazy day?

Get up, read the paper, go for a walk, sit around reading, or, playing on my computer, have a nice nap in the afternoon, take a swim (we have a pool), watch TV beginning with the PBS NewsHour at 6 p.m.

What do you believe is the next frontier for LGBTQ rights in the United States?

Winning many elections, putting us openly in state and federal legislative bodies, governerships, judges, etc. Establishing more LGBT communities, especially for retired people.

What do you hope to accomplish next?

I’m an old lady, so I’m now leaving the accomplishments to others. For myself, I very much need to figure out how and where to spend the rest of my life. : :

A review of techniques in managing depression Mental Health

BY Stanley Popovich | CONTRIBUTING WRITER Some people have a difficult time in managing their depression. Sometimes, their depression and fears can get the best of them. As a result, here is a short list of techniques that a person can use to help manage their depression.

One of the ways to manage your depression is to challenge your negative thinking with positive statements and realistic thinking.

When encountering thoughts that make you fearful or depressed, challenge those thoughts by asking yourself questions that will maintain objectivity and common sense. For example, you’re afraid that if you do not get that job promotion then you will be stuck at your job forever.

This depresses you, however, your thinking in this situation is unrealistic. The fact of the matter is that there all are kinds of jobs available, and just because you don’t get this job promotion, doesn’t mean that you will never get one. In addition, people change jobs all the time, and you always have that option of going elsewhere if you are unhappy at your present location.

Some people get depressed and have a difficult time getting out of bed in the mornings.

When this happens, a person should take a deep breath and try to find something to do to get their mind off of the problem. A person could take a walk, listen to some music, read the newspaper or do an activity that will give them a fresh perspective on things. Doing something will get your mind off of the problem and give you confidence to do other things.

Sometimes, we can get depressed over a task that we will have to perform in the near future. When this happens, visualize yourself doing the task in your mind.

For instance, you and your team have to play in the championship volleyball game in front of a large group of people in the next few days. Before the big day comes, imagine yourself playing the game in your mind. Imagine that you’re playing in front of a large audience. By playing

the game in your mind, you will be better prepared to perform for real when the time comes.

Self-visualization is a great way to reduce the fear and stress of a coming situation.

Another technique that is very helpful is to have a small notebook of positive statements that makes you feel good. Whenever you come across an affirmation that makes you feel good, write it down in a small notebook that you can carry around with you in your pocket.

Whenever you feel depressed, open up your small notebook and read those statements.

Take advantage of the help that is available around you. If possible, talk to a professional who can help you manage your fears and anxieties. They will be able to provide you with additional advice and insights on how to deal with your current problem. By talking to a professional, a person will be helping themselves in the long run because they will become better able to deal with their problems in the future. Managing your fears and anxieties takes practice. The more you practice, the better you will become.

The techniques that I have just covered are some basic ways to manage your depression, however your best bet is to get some help from a professional. : : Stanley Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods.” For more information, visit managingfear.com.

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continued from page 14 Marc Stein is a valuable resource to have.

Here, Stein collected photographs, court transcripts, notes, newspaper excerpts and transcripts of documents that prove an intimate timeline for the years 1965 through 1973. His focus was on four major cities but he also includes documents that originated elsewhere; works of fiction also show up in this book. While it’s primarily about gay men, lesbians and “transvestites” are inside its pages, as well.

Says Stein, “there is always more to the story…” and this books displays it.

Here’s another book on Stonewall. To anybody else, that tchotchke would be worthless. To you, though, it oozes with memories, and that’s why you keep it: because it represents special people, remarkable times or things you hold in your heart. One glance, and you instantly recall something you want to remember, so in “Stonewall Riots” by Gayle E. Pitman, take a look at 50 objects that represent LGBTQ history. While this is a book for children ages 10 and up, this book is also for anyone under the age of 55. You wouldn’t remember the riots first-hand, so reading “The Stonewall Riots” is absolutely worthwhile.

She begins with a basic history of Greenwich Village in New York City and the Jefferson Livery Stable, which housed horses long before it became Bonnie’s Stonewall Inn, and then just the Stonewall Inn. Back then, being gay or lesbian meant almost certain persecution. In the 1960s resistance began to bubble up within the

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African-American community, anti-war protesters and LGBTQ individuals. Small uprisings had been staged on behalf of LGBTQ people in California, while in New York, LGBTQ individuals were getting pretty tired of police harassment, Mafia shake-downs and raids on their hangouts.

And on June 28, 1969, their simmering anger boiled over… and the world changed for the LGBTQ community.

And it’s normal to want to compare the way things were in 1969 to the way things are now. In “Out in Time,” Perry N. Halkitis does exactly that with three generations of gay men to show that, while there are differences in social attitudes, health, legalities and politics, there are also striking similarities in challenges and in gains. Done with mini-interviews woven through narrative to hold together the words of everyday people, this is an easy book to step into, with short chapters and browse-able segments.

Another book from an historical viewpoint but not specifically about Stonewall has the reader harkening back to the days of “queer” Brooklyn. In “When Brooklyn Was Queer” by Hugh Ryan, everything and nothing is familiar.

From the starting point of a poet and a wharf full of sailors, readers glide smoothly to wood-floor dancehalls; sweeping near audacious lesbian actors, scandal rags, legal fights, burly-Q stages, then to the Jazz Age and beyond. Each spot is covered, sprinkled with asides, personal anecdotes from author Ryan, and modern references to create connections, then gently folded into the next subject.

While this is a history of Brooklyn, specifically, and New York, in general, we’re taken to other cities and cultures to see how worldwide changes impacted Brooklyn’s residents. And unlike many books, this one doesn’t ignore anyone in the LGBTQ initialism; all are mentioned here and given due diligence. For readers searching for a fun, fascinating, all-encompassing history, “When Brooklyn Was Queer” is a nice change.

Readers should note that these books are historically-based and may be on the scholarly side, eye-opening and quite entertaining. If you have keen memories of the summer of 1969, what’s here may pull you back 50 years. If you’re too young to remember what happened then, these books on the Stonewall Riots and more will keep you busy all summer. : :

Love At First Sight Isn’t Easy With Glasses?

Tell Trinity

BY Trinity | CONTRIBUTING WRITER Dear Trinity, My best friend keeps pushing me to get rid of my glasses and get contacts. He says it will help my dating life and my sex life. But what’s wrong with glasses?

Yours, Eye Contact(s), Kansas City, MO Dear Eye Contact(s), If truth be told, glasses hide your face, block your eyes and get in the way of kissing. In other words, honey, single folks with glasses must also own contacts. Yes, glasses are convenient and make you look sophisticated, but contacts let others see into your eyes, trust your face and feel like they’re getting a sense of you — maybe even experience love at first sight. The eyes are the key to the soul as well as to better dating.

Love, Trinity Hello Trinity, After so many bad dates, when is it time to just accept that I’m going to be single forever?

Giving Up, Daytona Beach, FL Hello Giving Up, When is it time? Well, when is it time for a baby to stop trying to stand up and

just crawl forever? When is it time for an athlete to stop trying to accelerate and just accept failure? Sorry, pumpkin, but the answer is never. You can never give up on dating! Maybe, when you’re on your deathbed, and you can’t feel your feet. Then, and only then, can you... take the night off.

(Keep your options open like I do. See my cartoon for how I deal with it, sugar! Like the old adage says, “try, try again…”)

Hugs, Trinity

Dearest Trinity, My boyfriend ended our two-year relationship recently. Sometimes I’m fine, but sometimes I’m all depressed. Help?

Yours, Dealing With It, Billings, MT Dearest DWI, There are four stages of dealing with death (and a break up): shock, sadness, anger and (finally) resolution. Resolution takes the longest and has the most emotional waves of happy, sad, anger and eventual peace.

Breaking up means taking a journey back through all the emotions you felt on your way toward loving someone. Eventually, sweetie, you’ll learn to live without their problems and them. Give it time. But not too much time.

Big Hugs, Trinity Hey Trinity, My partner and I are thinking about opening up our relationship. Do you think it will be negative or positive for us as a couple of six years?

Sincerely, Opening Night Jitters, Palm Springs, CA Hey Opening Night Jitters, There are many positive and negative realities to an open relationship. I printed the positive ones a few columns back so, darling, after years of thought here’s:

Trinity’s Negative Realities For Starting An Open Relationship

1. L OVE: If you or your partner falls in love with someone else, everything is over.

2. D ISEASES: If one of you ”slips” up, the other one will also catch the “slipper.”

3. BALANCE: If one partner gets too crazy while the other one hardly indulges, there will be a major imbalance.

4. DISSATISFACTION: If someone else pleases your partner more than you, then the sex between you two may get boring or non-existent.

5. JEALOUSY: If you bring someone home for yourself or a third person for both of you, but he/she is more into one of you, someone may get jealous.

6. THE GAME: If you think finding sex or other people to have an open relationship with is easy, you just may find out that it’s a very time-consuming game.

7. THE SEARCH: If finding someone else means going out, searching the Internet and so on, that means less time to work on your own relationship.

8. THE RHYTHM: If one of you isn’t on the same sexual schedule as the other one, you may not be able to keep both sex-lives going for long.

9. THE THIRD ONE: If someone else decides they want one or both of you, you now have to deal with someone else’s stalking, obsessions or desires.

10. Lastly, YOUR OTHER PROBLEMS: If you start an open relationship, this doesn’t mean your other problems will disappear or any new problems won’t appear!

With a Masters of Divinity, Reverend Trinity hosted “Spiritually Speaking,” a weekly radio drama performed globally, and is now minister of sponsor, WIG: Wild Inspirational Gatherings, wigministries.org, Gay Spirituality for the Next Generation! Learn more at telltrinity.com.

Send emails to: trinity@telltrinity.com.

June 28-July 11, 2019

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events June 28-Aug. 30 Architecture of the Immaterial LaCa Projects

June 28-30 Churchill’s Shorts

CAM/Raleigh 409 W. Martin St., Raleigh Times Vary Burning Coal Theatre Company and CAM/Raleigh present two short plays by acclaimed playwright Caryl Churchill. The plays will explore themes such as technology, family and the environment. Tickets are $15 and are available online. sforce.co/2KveFlE.

June 28-29 Charlotte Caribbean Carnival

Various Times and Locations Charlotte’s week-long Caribbean Festival will feature a wide variety of events including a children’s carnival, a Miss Charlotte Caribbean Carnival Queen pageant and various music and dance events.

A highlight of the festival will be the June 29 AfroCarribean street parade, starting at 4 p.m. and ending in a carnival village where local, national and international talents will perform. A full listing of events and tickets are available online. charlottecaribbeancarnival.com.

June 28-30 ‘Falsettos’

Blumenthal Performing Arts Center 130 North Tryon St., Charlotte Times Vary The groundbreaking, Tony Awardwinning musical “Falsettos” tells the story of a charming, intelligent, neurotic gay man named Marvin, his wife, lover, about-to-be-Bar-Mitzvahed son, their psychiatrist and the lesbians next door. Tickets start at $25 and are available online. bit.ly/2IlCvNZ.

1429 Bryant St., Charlotte Times Vary Latin American Contemporary Art (LaCa) Projects presents Architecture of the Immaterial, a collective exhibition featuring six prominent artists of Latin American origin.

Gallery times and ticket information can be found online. lacaprojects.com.

June 28 Ali Wong: The Milk & Money Tour

Ovens Auditorium 2700 E. Independence Blvd., Charlotte 7 p.m.

Comic Ali Wong brings her raunchy and insightful comedy to Charlotte. Tickets start at $39.50 and are available online. bit.ly/2YxlW8q.

June 29 ‘Between the Shades’ Film Screening

First Congregational United Church of Christ 20 Oak St., Asheville 2-5 p.m.

PFLAG Asheville presents a screening of “Between the Shades: 50+ Conversations About How People Define Themselves and How We Love Each Other,” a film featuring stories from LGBTQ people and the allies who love and support them. Tickets are $10 and are available online. Concessions will be available for purchase and all proceeds support PFLAG Asheville. bit.ly/2x2PcYS.

July 4 Summerfest: Independence Day Celebration

Symphony Park 4400 Sharon Rd., Charlotte 8:15 p.m.

The Charlotte Symphony provides

Cirque Du Soleil brings “Crystal: A Breakthrough Ice Experience” to the Spectrum Center. The show will feature world-class ice skaters and acrobats performing on ice. Tickets are $50 and are available online.

Spectrum Center, 333 E. Trade St., Charlotte. Times Vary. bit.ly/2RxTKQF.

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Submit your events: editor@goqnotes.com

a rousing salute to America with a night of rousing patriotic tunes including Sousa marches, “America the Beautiful” and the “Armed Forces Medley.” The performance will be followed up by a fireworks show.

Tickets are free for youth 12 and under, $4.11 for youth 13-18 and begin at $14.78 for adults and are available online. bit.ly/2x2PcYS.

July 7 Bring It! Live: The Dance Battle Tour

Ovens Auditorium 2700 E. Independence Blvd., Charlotte 7 p.m.

Coach Diana Williams and her team of Dancing Dolls, stars of the hit Lifetime TV series “Bring It!,” present an interactive show jam-packed with dance battles, motivation and inspiration. Tickets start at $34.75 and are available online. bit.ly/2XuJvSB.

July 9-15 ‘Hello, Dolly!’

Belk Theater 130 N. Tryon St., Charlotte Various Times Broadway legend Betty Buckley stars in the critically acclaimed musical “Hello, Dolly!” This new production has broken box office records and garnered praise in the media and from theatergoers. Tickets start at $25 and are available online. bit.ly/2wJ3b62.

July 10 2019 Charlotte Election Season Kick-Off

Heist Brewery 2909 N Davidson St., Charlotte 6:30 p.m.

Courtney Francisco of WCCB and local attorney and activist Andrew Fede host a night of conversation with 2019 political candidates for the U.S. Congress, mayor, city council, and school board. The event is non-partisan and open to the public. General admission is free, but attendees are asked to RSVP online. bit.ly/2MYenqw.

July 10 Raleigh LGBT Chamber of Commerce Dinner

July 17-21: Cirque du Soleil: — ‘Crystal: A Breakthrough Ice Experience’

July 2019

18 Seaboard Restaurant 18 Seaboard Ave., #100, Raleigh 6 p.m.

Join the Raleigh LGBT Chamber of Commerce at their monthly dinner meeting, featuring a wide variety of speakers covering issues relevant to the LGBTQ community.

Socialize and meet area business professionals. Casual business attire is required and tickets are available online. bit.ly/2Fft9m7.

July 11-14 nuVoices Play Festival

July 12: Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

The legendary Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons visit Charlotte with their unique blend of pop and rock. Tickets start at $57 and are available online. Ovens Auditorium, 2700 E. Independence Blvd., Charlotte 8 p.m. bit.ly/2wEmCgj. Hadley Theater Queens University 2132 Radcliffe Ave., Charlotte The Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte presents nuVoices, a four-day festival in which four innovative playwrights will be in residence, presenting and workshopping new plays. The plays presented will explore such themes as struggling to find a sense of place as an immigrant in present-day America, seeking mentorship as a first-generation college student of color and the perils and intricacies of international adoption. All are welcome to attend the festival as a pay-what-you-can event.

More information is available online. atcharlotte.org/nuvoices-2019.

July 12 Out of Body

C3 Lab 2525 Distribution St., Charlotte 7 p.m.

Local artist Arthur Brouthers presents his latest series “Out of the Body,” featuring mixed media artworks exploring the human experience through celestial bodies and microscopic processes alike.

The exhibit will feature guided meditations, immersive visuals and ambient electronic music. arthurbrouthers.com/obe.

July 13 Bearbeque at The Woodshed

The Woodshed 4000 Queen City Dr., Charlotte 7 p.m.

Charlotte Pride and The Woodshed present Bearbeque, a fully catered barbeque meal followed by a meet-and-greet with Max Konnor of Men.com and Shawn Morales from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Pit Crew, culminating in The Woodshed’s Saturday evening party. All proceeds benefit Charlotte Pride Scholarship Program. Tickets are $12 and are available online. bit.ly/2XYfAyP.

July 13-14 13 Reasons Why Ball

World Event Center 900 NC Music Factory Blvd., Charlotte 4 p.m.

Marcus Escada presents the “13 Reasons Why Ball,” a night of LGBTQ fashion, runway and performance.

Tickets start at $50 and are available online. bit.ly/2FhFpme.

July 14 Charlotte French Fest

Nevin Community Park 6000 Statesville Rd., Charlotte 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Celebrate the richness of French culture with a day of wine, crepes, pastries, music and dance. There will also be a demonstration of petanque, an exciting French game that you may just get hooked on! Tickets are $5 and are available online. charlotte-french-festival.com.

July 17 CENTERSTAGE: Black LGBTQ Singer/Songwriters

Resident Culture Brewing Company 2101 Central Ave., Charlotte 7 p.m.

Kick off Charlotte Black Pride Week with an amazing showcase of local black LGBTQ singer/songwriters, including Whitney Hall, Tiffanie McCall, Frank B., and more. The event will feature complimentary appetizers from MJ’s Kitchen, onsite retail vendors and a cash bar

by Resident Culture. Tickets are $10 and are available online. bit.ly/2XluKBn.

July 24 Mary J. Blige and Nas

PNC Music Pavillion 707 Pavillion Blvd., Charlotte 8 p.m.

Legendary R&B singer Mary J. Blige and Nas, considered one of America’s best rappers, bring their show to Charlotte. Tickets start at $30.99 and are available online. bit.ly/2WU4ZZf.

REGULAR EVENTS Charlotte LGBT Chamber

Regular business meetings, social events and other activities throughout the year. Days and times vary. info: clgbtcc.org.

PFLAG Concord/Kannapolis

Meets for monthly group support meetings, second Tuesday of each month, 7-9 p.m., Trinity United Church of Christ, 38 Church St. N., Concord. info: bit.ly/1pCFVBq.

PFLAG Gaston

Meets for monthly support meetings, third Thursday of each month, 7 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 258 W. Franklin Blvd., Gastonia. info: pflaggaston.org.

Prime Timers

Monthly meeting including dinner, speaker, games and more for gay men ages 21 and up, 5-7 p.m., Park Road Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, 3900 Park Rd., Charlotte. info: primetimersww.com/charlotte/.

Stonewall Sports

Regular team sports, meet-up, social and service events throughout the year. Days and times vary. info: stonewallcharlotte.leagueapps.com.

Trans Youth Group

Time Out Youth Center hosts weekly discussion groups for transgender youth ages 13-20 each Thursday, 4:306 p.m., 3800 Monroe Rd., Charlotte. info: timeoutyouth.org.

Transcend Charlotte

Hosts twice monthly support groups for partners, friends and family of transgender and gender non-conforming adults ages 18 and older, second and fourth Sundays of each month, 6-7 p.m., Time Out Youth Center, 3800 Monroe Rd., Charlotte.

Prior to each meeting an anxiety support group is offered 5-6 p.m. info: transcendcharlotte.org.

UPDATES/ADDITIONS?

Do you have a regular and reoccurring community event you’d like listed? A listing to update? Email us at editor@ goqnotes.com.

a&e

Buff Faye’s Top 12 ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Songs Dishing with Buff Faye

BY Buff Faye | CONTRIBUTING WRITER | info@bufffaye.com I never realized how many “RuPaul’s Drag Race” songs I actually listen to. Of course, I have loved RuPaul’s cheeky club hits since the 1990s — “Supermodel (You Better Work),” “Covergirl” and, even more recent, “Peanut Butter.” And I must give a shout out to Jackie Beat, who before RuPaul likely invented the idea (or stole it from Weird Al). But RuPaul’s songs aside, I can’t believe how the 100 plus “RuPaul’s” queens from the show have shaped pop culture and the music we love today. I am sure you have your favorites, but these are my “Top ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Songs.” They’re now available on iTunes. LOL. Don’t judge me.

No shade intended, but not in any particular order.

1. “Uptown Fish” by Shangela Yassss, we call that FISH! Shangela took Bruno Mars “Uptown Funk” and made it into a gay anthem of queerness. Bye Felicia… pack your bags! Truly one of my favorites.

2. “Chow Down at Chick-fil-a” by Willam, Detox & Vickey Vox You know you want to… This drag trio spills the tea on the Chick-fil-a lemonade all over in this song. “Oh, someday somebody’s gonna make you wanna gobble up a waffle fry. But no don’t, don’t ya know Chick-fil-A say you’ll make the baby Jesus cry?” The true paradox put to words in a classic song. Plus it serves up a rap by Detox.

3. “Purse First” by Bob the Drag Queen I think the song is simply brilliant. The lyrics are ridiculous just like Bob the Drag Queen. “It is a known fact that a woman do carry an evening bag at dinner time, You see it on Real Housewives of Atlanta, You see it on Real Housewives of Potomac, You even see it on Little Women LA! I don’t know why you all gagging, Purse first, purse first, walk into the room purse first…”

4. “Love You Like a Big Schlong” by will.i.am Leave it to will.i.am to gag us with a big schlong. As always, will.i.am takes the innocence of Selena Gomez’ “Love You like a Love Song” and turns it on its ear in this hit song remake! “No shade, no tea / I’m a size queen looking for 23 (centimeters!)”

5. “Servin’ It Up” by Peppermint Peppermint delivered this scrumptious song before her debut on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

It has a club feel and what could be better than singing about food and boys? “I’m servin’ it up!”

6. “Valentina” by Alaska Not sure why I’m stuck on this song. Maybe because it was so freaking clever to take what happened to Valentina on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and make it into a hit.

And what could be better than a parody of the global success of “Despacito.” Ha, ha, ha… laughing all the way to the bank.

7. “The Big Girl” by Eureka O’Hara Found it! Indeed, Eureka did.

Win or lose the finale of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” this song was a success for the “Big Girl.” She moved moun(Photo Credit: David Bryant) tains and hearts — plus she did it all standing in line at “the Buffet baby.”

8. “This Is How We Jew It” by Detox “I’m pussy bitch…” And, yes, she is all Never take Detox seriously. LOL. I love pussy. This song is everyday Bebe Zahara this refreshing holiday song that brings joy Benet. It’s wild, crazy and then some. I can to the Jewish traditions of Hanukkah and feel all my puss with this song. Plus it’s so the Jewish boys we cherish. Shalom. catchy, I sing it all day long. “Rrrrra-ka-ta-ti9. “Werquin Girl” by Shangela ti-ta-ta, Yeah, I’m pussy, bitch!, Ooh-la-la-la“Clock the hair. Clock the mug.” I la-la-la, C’est bon, c’est bon, Do-go-choco-ladon’t know one drag queen who has not ta-la, You can’t take my snatch, Drag it up, performed this song. Shangela has a way wild it up, Give me more, bring it to the ball!” of making hit songs that you can’t stop Okurrrrrr! singing. I mean she told us all she was a “professional.” I believe it! Love this!

DRAG TIP: Get into the studio and record 10. “Dream a Litte Dream” by Ginger Minj your own song. The days of lip-synching Soulful. Beautiful. Heartfelt. I love listening may be slowly numbered as drag queens. to this song during my self care time.

11. “The Chop” by Latrice & Manilla Buff Faye calls the Queen City her home and Two besties telling you how it is. Don’t loves summer pool parties (plus she loves to worry about those naysayers full of negaraise money for charities). Find her at your tivity. Serve up that fish, be glamorous… favorite bars and hot spots. And don’t forget even if you get “the chop.” Fun song to her monthly Sunday drag brunch. Learn keep your head up and move on. more at AllBuff.com. Follow on Twitter @ 12. “Jungle Kitty” by Bebe Zahara Benet BuffFaye.

SHOUT OUTS: Are you hungry for drag and an all you can eat buffet? Come out to Buff Faye’s Drag Brunch every month — get tickets online at AllBuff.com.

June 28-July 11, 2019

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June 28-July 11, 2019