12/19/12 V3I51 by South Florida Gay News

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Pull-Out Section, Middle of Paper DECember 19, 2012 • Volume 3 • Issue 51

We Grieve Photo courtesy of Armin Vogel

Thoughts about the day 20 children were killed and the Earth stood still Pages 42/43

MEET FLORIDA’S YOUNGEST OPENLY GAY PUBLIC OFFICIAL page 20 INSIDE THIS ISSUE

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Do gays donate enough?

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A Gay Christmas

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Do you know the King?

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Lincoln & LGBTs

‘ANONYMOUS’ SAYS DON’T MESS WITH THE GAYS OF THE WORLD page 10

Top 3 on SFGN.com By Sergio N. Candido

Last week’s hottest items that couldn’t wait to be printed

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Publisher Norm Kent norm.kent@sfgn.com

FBI Report Shows Rise in Anti-Gay Hate Crimes

Chief Executive Officer Pier Angelo Guidugli

Hate crimes against LGBTs rose 2 percent in 2011 compared to 2010 Hate crimes based on sexual orientation rose slightly in 2011 compared to the previous year, despite fewer agencies submitting data, a report by the FBI shows. According to the 2011 Hate Crime Statistics, the number of reported hate crimes

committed against gay men and lesbians increased from 1,277 in 2010 to 1,293 in 2011—evidencing a 2.6 percent rise. Less law enforcement agencies nationwide submitted data regarding this type of hate crimes. The number of agencies dropped from 14,977 in 2010 to 14,575 the next year. However, the number of hate crimes based on sexual identity was still enough to surpass

those committed based on religion. Submitting hate crimes based on gender identity is voluntary. But under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the FBI will begin collecting this data in 2013 and will report these statistics beginning in 2014. Overall, the number of hate crimes decreased by 6 percent.

Celebrities Create Gay Wedding Bands for Charity

Editorial

Editor in Chief Jason Parsley jason.parsley@sfgn.com

Managing Editor Gideon Grudo gideon.grudo@sfgn.com

Website Director Dennis Jozefowicz

Online News Director Sergio N. Candido sergio.candido@sfgn.com

Graphic Designer Mark Pauciullo

Arts/Entertainment Editor JW Arnold jw@prdconline.com

International Travel Editor Joey Amato

Business Editor Richard Gary

Sports Editor Ryan Dixon ryan.dixon@sfgn.com

Correspondents

All proceeds from online wedding rings auction will go to LGBT organizations Honoring the recent gay marriage victories nationwide, a New York jewelry maker convinced celebrities to design wedding bands for same-sex couples in an effort to support several LGBT organizations. The idea is the brainchild of Sam Street, who since last

year creates wedding rings for gay couples under his brand, Proposition Love. Street’s now taking the concept to a new level with “Love is Love,” an online holiday auction of 10 rings designed by celebrities like Kathy Griffin, Travis Wall, and Perez Hilton. The auction closed on Dec. 18.All the proceeds are set to go to groups that support marriage equality, LGBT youth and anti-bullying, and

Tony Adams Jesse Monteagudo Donald Cavanaugh Andrea Dulanto

HIV/AIDS activism. Griffin will be donating the proceeds of her ring to The Trevor Project. “Just days after our wedding in San Francisco in 2008, Proposition 8 was voted in. The fact that the right to marry was given to us and denied to others prompted us to become proactive in the marriage equality movement,” Street told The Advocate.

Contributing Columnists Wayne Besen Brian McNaught Leslie Robinson Dana Rudolph David Webb Michael Verdugo Ric Reily Victoria Michaels Calendar Editor Brian Swinford Editorial Cartoonists Karl Hampe Darryl Smith Staff Photographers J.R. Davis Pompano Bill Steven Shires

‘Queen James’ Bible Makes the Pro-Gay Argument A new bible reinterprets gay sex references to stop spread of homophobia How do you argue against conservative religious extremists? Fight bible with bible. The editors of a new bible argue that references to samesex love as a sin were not included in the bible until its last revision, in 1946. So they decided to made changes to eight verses from

six books, including Genesis and Leviticus, to prevent “homophobic interpretations” and create the “Queen James” Bible. “We wanted to make a Bible someone could hold in their hands knowing it could not be used to spread homophobia in the name of God. We succeeded,” the editors said in a statement. This new interpretation of “the holy book” is based on King James I version. The British king, the

editors say, was bisexual and was nicknamed “Queen James” because of his gay affairs, hence the name of the new bible. They added: “You can’t choose your sexuality, but you can choose Jesus. Now you can choose a Bible, too.” The Queen James Bible is available on Amazon for $35.

& • Three More Quickies to Wake You Up Boeing Airlines Gay Employee Starts Online Petition

ck Sti ith W s! U

Read our daily stories at SFGN.com You can also find us on •Family Research Council Boycotts UPS Facebook: The conservative group said they won’t do business with a company that supports gay rights SouthFloridaGayNews •Former NHL Player Advocates for the LGBT Community Twitter: @soflagaynews. Former hockey player Sean Avery pressured the league to raise penalties for homophobic slurs An engineer at the airline is petitioning the company provides equal benefits to gay couples

December 19 2012 • Volume 3 • Issue 51

Sales

Marketing Director John Fugate Sales Manager Mike Trottier Sales Associates Edwin Neimann Justin Wyse National Sales Representative Rivendell Media todd@rivendellmedia.com

South Florida Gay News.com is published weekly. The opinions expressed in columns, stories, and letters to the editor are those of the writers. They do not represent the opinions of South Florida Gay News.com, Inc., or the Publisher. You should not presume the sexual orientation of individuals based on their names or pictorial representations in SFGN. Furthermore the word “gay” in SFGN should be interpreted to be inclusive of the entire LGBT community. All of the material that appears in SFGN, both online at www.southfloridagaynews.com, and in our print edition, including articles used in conjunction with the Associated Press and our columnists, is protected under federal copyright and intellectual property laws, and is jealously guarded by the newspaper. Nothing published may be reprinted in whole or part without getting written consent from the Publisher of SFGN, at his law office, at Norm@NormKent.com. SFGN, as a private corporation, reserves the right to enforce its own standards regarding the suitability of advertising copy, illustrations and photographs. Copyright©2012 South Florida Gay News.com, Inc.

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December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Music Producer David Geffen Donates $100 Million to UCLA’s Medical School By Sergio N. Candido

UCLA’s medical school had been named afavid Geffen, who has produced records for Bob Dylan and John Len- ter Geffen after he donated $200 million in non, donated $100 million to the 2002. “With this game-changing gift, Mr. GefUniversity of California, Los Angeles Medical School that will serve to grant fen has invested in the medical education and training of some of the full scholarships for students. world’s brightest and most The money will cover the cost of medical school, includtalented young people, influencing medical research and ing tuition, room and board, patient care for generations to books and other expenses for come,” said UCLA Chancellor 30 incoming students. It will Gene Block. also create a scholarship fund “We are inspired by his vifor future recipients. sion and grateful for his gen“The cost of a world-class medical education should not erosity, which places UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medideter our future innovators, cine at the forefront in the doctors and scientists from david geffen competitive marketplace for the path they hope to pursue,” top medical school applicants Geffen said in a statement. “We need the students at this world-class in- and enhances healthcare and biomedical restitution to be driven by determination and search for generations.” Geffen was ranked among the “Most Powerthe desire to do their best work and not by the fear of crushing debt. I hope in doing this ful Gay Men and Women in America” of 2007 by Out magazine. that others will be inspired to do the same.”

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

s w s e N ief r B By Sergio N. Candido No Action From SCOTUS on Remaining Gay Marriage Cases While the Supreme Court announced on Dec. 14 that it would take on California’s Proposition 8 and one case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, there are still a handful of gay marriage cases pending a decision. The high court announced on Dec. 11 that there wouldn’t be any action in these other cases for now. Prop 8 Trial Tracker writes that the Supreme Court will probably wait on these cases until it first issues decisions on the two it’s decided to take on. “Then, based on the outcome of those, the Court will send the cases back to the lower courts to decide how to proceed,” the website read. The pending cases include several challenges to DOMA and a case about benefits for domestic partners in same-sex relationships in Arizona. Passed in 2008, Proposition 8 took away the right to marry from gays and lesbians in California. The law was challenged by two gay couples who got a historic decision on Feb. 7, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The proponents of the anti-gay law then took that decision to the Supreme Court. DOMA is a 1996 law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, thus depriving gay couples of the rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples, like filing tax returns together and maintaining estate rights after widowing. The court will likely issue a decision on the Proposition 8 and DOMA cases in June 2013.

Photo of Boy Wearing Pink Shoes Sparks Debate A Facebook photo of a 5-year-old wearing pink shoes to school has gone viral on the blogosphere, and sparked a debate about homosexuality and bullying. The image was posted on the Facebook

page Have a Gay Day and came from an anonymous user who said her little brother, Sam, had decided to wear pink shoes to his first day of preschool, something which angered family members who saw the photo. “Yesterday my mom posted a picture on Facebook of my 5-year-old brother Sam wearing a pair of shoes he picked out for his first day of preschool. She explained to him in the store that they were really made for girls. Sam then told her that he didn’t care and that ‘ninjas can wear pink shoes too. “However, my mom received about 20 comments on the photo from various family members saying how ‘wrong’ it is and how ‘things like this will affect him socially’ and, put most eloquently by my great aunt, ‘that sh*t will turn him gay.’”

According to the user, Sam liked the shoes not because they were pink, but because they had a zebra print — his favorite animal. The photo was posted on Facebook on Dec. 6 and has since gone viral, accumulating a total of over 124,000 ‘Likes,’ 20,800 ‘Shares,’ and over 12,500 comments as of Dec. 11. A blogger at The Stir, a website geared toward women (moms in particular), criticized the mother for letting her kid wear pink shoes to school, saying it’s like begging for her kid to be bullied. “Somehow I’m guessing if my son were to put on that same pair of shoes — he wouldn’t even make it through the fiveminute bus ride to school in the morning before someone laughed at him, asked him why in the heck he was wearing pink shoes, spewed all sorts of mean jokes his way, or told him he was dressed like a girl,” Mary

Fischer wrote. She added: “Bullying is bad enough as it is without handing tormentors their material on a silver platter.”

Miami Man Accuses Elmo Puppeteer of Sexual Abuse A fourth teen-sex claim — this time from a Miami resident — hits Kevin Clash, the gay puppeteer who played Elmo on Sesame Street before he resigned amid earlier sexabuse claims this year. According to The Miami Herald, Clash met the alleged victim in Miami Beach in the mid-1990s. Jeff Herman, the lawyer representing the anonymous victim, said the puppeteer even invited the boy to visit him in New York City. “He had previously been abused before,” Herman told The Herald. “He was hesitant to go to New York, but Kevin convinced him he’d be a father figure to him. Kevin used the word ‘dad.’ Once there, it was a sexual thing.” The alleged victim still lives in Miami-Dade County and has a history of drug addiction, thefts, and “anti-social behavior,” his lawyer said. Clash was first accused of sexual abuse early in November by Sheldon Stephens, a now 24-yearold struggling model with a long criminal record. Clash was found innocent. The puppeteer resigned from the show after a second lawsuit irked Sesame Street producers, who called the controversy surrounding Clash’s personal life “a distraction that none of us want.” The Miami lawsuit brings the sexabuse claims against Clash to four in total.

Stripper-Turned-Preacher: Rapist Demons Can Make You Gay Attempting to understand the darkest side of religion, a Christian magazine interviewed a woman who wrote a book after experiencing what she claims were repeated sexual attacks by a “sexual demon.” According to Charisma Magazine, Contessa Adams, a former stripper turned minister, said she was raped on several occasions by a succubus, known in folklore as a “female demon believed to have sexual intercourse with sleeping men.” Adams wrote in her books that such demons “often prey on people by performing sexual acts through nightmares and erotic dreams.” “Some people become so dependent

upon these demonic experiences that they actually look forward to them,” she said. This was the case with Adams, who says the evil spirit attacked her so frequently she contemplated becoming a lesbian. Then, in 1979, she says the succubus was exorcised out of her and she was cured. After that, she decided to start her own ministry. Adams is not the only one who thinks demons can turn people gay. Eddie Smith, the president of US Prayer Track, told Charisma he and his wife have ministered to “at least hundreds” of people suffering from demonic sexual attacks. Also, Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former Navy Chaplain claims he has performed over 50 gay exorcisms. “People are recruited, people are deceived, and people make a choice,” Klingenschmitt, who claims to have had about a 50 percent success rate in “curing” gayness, has said. “They have a free will, moral choice ...The marketing of homosexuality has an agenda, and that is to repopulate their population by recruiting the children of heterosexuals.”

Merck Ceases Donations to Boy Scouts Over Anti-Gay Policy Pharmaceutical giant Merck, the parent company of Coppertone sunscreen, announced it will cut donations to the Boy Scouts of America over the organization’s anti-gay policies. “Merck Foundation has suspended all funding to the Boys Scouts of America (BSA),” the charitable arm of the company posted on its website on Dec. 5. “The Merck Foundation will consider funding the BSA again when the organization’s inclusion criteria has been expanded.” Earlier this year, the Boy Scouts voted to reaffirm a policy excluding LGBT community members from participating in any way with the BSA. Merck Foundation representative Brian Grill penned a letter posted on Scouts for Equality to explain the company’s decision: “The Merck Foundation believes that it is critical to honor and support a foundational policy of diversity and inclusion in all funding decisions … we cannot continue to provide support to an organization with a policy that is contrary to one of our core beliefs. We remain ready and willing to reconsider our funding position in the event that the BSA were to revise its policy,” he wrote. With this decision, Merck joins Intel and UPS among the companies that have cut ties with the BSA due to its anti-gay policies. In an effort spearheaded by Zach Wahls, Scouts for Equality is pressuring Verizon to take a similar stance in regard to the BSA. The group started a petition last November

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

to get the mobile phones company to cease donations. While the petition has already reached its 60,000 signatures goal, Verizon has yet to respond.

Pope Benedict: ‘Gay Marriage is Against Human Nature’ Pope Benedict XVI issued a message for World Day of Peace on Dec. 14 saying there’s a need to promote and preserve straight marriages as “natural.” “There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union,” the Pope is quoted by Italian newspaper Ansa as saying. “Such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.” He went on to say that anti-gay marriage views are “inscribed in human nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common to all humanity,” and that gay marriage could constitute a “serious harm to justice and peace.” This is not the first time “His Sanctity” bashes gays. During a speech last September, the Pope suggested that gay people are not fully developed humans. “The family is threatened in many places by a faulty conception of human nature,” he said. Some translations had him saying the word “defective.”

don’t care,” she said. The UFC has had its share of anti-gay incidents. In 2009, UFC President Dana White used the word “faggot” during a video blog. White apologized to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation the very next day, saying he “never intended to hurt the gay community,” but he said he still maintains saying those words was his biggest mistake in the UFC. Last year, Brazilian fighter Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira said he wouldn’t train

UFC Welcomes First Openly Lesbian Fighter The Ultimate Fighting Championship bout between Liz Carmouche and Ronda Rousey will mark a before and after in mixed martial arts as the first UFC cage fight between two women — to make it even more unprecedented, one of them happens to be gay. Carmouche is an Iraq War veteran and she’s openly lesbian. She recently told MMA Fighting that she encountered a much more welcoming climate in the UFC than she expected. “I thought I’d come into contact with some stereotypical person who is antihomosexuality, whether it be men or women. But I found the opposite. All they care about is a good, quality person who’s a good training partner. Apart from that, what you do with your personal life, they really

with a gay man. Carmouche told Sports Illustrated she faced a good deal of homophobia serving in the U.S. Army while “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was still in place. “There was nothing positive in terms of anything homosexual, anyone they suspected of being gay, they automatically treated as a scapegoat,” she told the magazine. Now she’s proudly out and will stay that way no matter what: “There’s no amount of money that’s going to make me go back in the closet.” The fight is set to take place on Feb. 23, 2013 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Clothing Company Shows Support for Gay Marriage in France Los Angeles-based clothing company American Apparel has promised it will give away 10,000 “Legalize Gay” T-shirts in France in an effort to support the passing of a gay marriage bill in the European nation. “Though polls currently show that a majority supports the passing of gay marriage laws, these numbers have declined in light of strenuous campaigning from opposing groups,” the company says in a release. “As a company, American Apparel has been very public in its support of the legalization of Gay Marriage in the United States and is now taking an international stand.” France is set to vote next year on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. While it was thought the bill would pass without any major problems, in recent months conservative religious groups have been very vocal about their disapproval. Dov Charney, founder and CEO of American Apparel, explained why his company is supporting gay rights: “In America the foundation of our civil rights are written as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - in France it is liberty, equality, fraternity. Our company believes that those creeds by our founding fathers join us in an obligation to fight for freedom and fairness,” he said in a statement. “Both the French and American people have a shared tradition of the pursuit of justice and we are proud to use our company’s resources and give our support to this important fight,” said Dov Charney, founder and CEO of American Apparel.”

Anti-Gay Pundit: Homosexuality May Be a ‘Birth Defect’ American Family Association mouthpiece Bryan Fischer is spinning a new study focused on what makes a person gay by claiming homosexuality could be a “birth defect.” A group of scientists recently proposed a theory that homosexuality may have an

epigenetic link, not solely a genetic link. According to their research, a lesbian will get the trait from her father, while a gay man will get the trait from his mother. “In other words, read from one angle, these same scientists are saying that homosexuality is the result of a birth defect, Fischer wrote on a blog post for Renew America. “All this in an effort to maintain some ever thinner thread of connection between biology and homosexuality.” Fischer also suggested that if parents find out their son or daughter has the “gay gene,” they could very well abort the fetus. “If 90 percent of babies in the womb who are diagnosed with Downs syndrome never draw their first breath, what are the chances that parents disposed to abortion will not exercise the same choice with regard to the gay gene?” Fischer added. “The scientists in Koebler’s article, in my view, are now resorting to genetic subterfuge and are coming dangerously close to saying that homosexuality is the result of a genetic defect, a genetic abnormality.” Fischer is no stranger to anti-gay, bigoted comments. Earlier this year, he tweeted calling for an “Underground Railroad to deliver innocent children from same-sex households.”

Four Dozen Groups Ask Obama to Halt Immigration Cases More than 50 gay rights and immigration groups wrote a letter to Obama asking him to suspend immigration cases of gay Americans seeking legal residency for foreign-born partners until the Supreme Court issues a decision on the Defense of Marriage Act next year. “With no ability to apply for family-based immigration benefits because of DOMA, many foreign nationals face the untenable choice” of remaining in the United States without legal papers and “facing the daily fear of deportation,” or “leaving the U.S. and their family behind,” the groups wrote in a letter send to the White House on Dec. 10, the New York Times reported. (The Times does not specify which groups formed part of the coalition and did not provide a copy or link to the letter.) DOMA is a 1996 law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, thus depriving gay couples of the rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples, like filing tax returns together and maintaining estate rights after widowing. The federal law also prohibits a gay American legally married to an immigrant from seeking permanent resident visas. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on DOMA and and California’s Proposition 8 by June, 2013.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

SFGN’s Interview with ‘Anonymous’ Group continues its crusade for gay rights in Uganda By Sergio N. Candido

ver since a bill that could make homosexuality punishable by death was reintroduced in the Ugandan Parliament this year, people associating themselves with the international hacktivists group Anonymous have been forcefully trying to convince (read ‘threatening’ if you will) Ugandan government authorities to halt the bill by showing them how vulnerable their network of government websites is. Hackers under different aliases have claimed credit for the hackings of several government sites, including the president’s office of communication. Some hacks consisted of making public the access keys for the websites, giving administrator power to anyone; another hack posted an image of a gay Ugandan and the Anonymous Guy Fawkes mask logo next on the homepage of the Office of the Prime Minister website. About ten government websites have been affected as of publication. While the Associated Press reports Ugandan politicians have removed the death penalty provision from the bill, some hacktivists still don’t buy it. The bill, known as “Kill the Gays,” is set to be discussed by parliament after the Christmas break. SFGN interviewed Sebastian Owl, the selfproclaimed architect behind #OpUganda, on his motivations for supporting gay rights in the African country, and what his plans are if the bill passes.

Read our Q&A below: Are you based in the U.S.? I am not personally based in the U.S., although I have lived there. Most of the Anons involved in this op with me are based in western Europe, including myself. We understand Anonymous is a decentralized group, so how do you coordinate operations with other people? Or do you act alone? Social media, word of mouth online,

internet relay chat and real life contacts within local Anonymous subgroupings. Facebook and twitter are necessary evils to Anonymous, because although they are both compromised by the authorities in their own respective ways we must go where the people are to converse with the people.

the media about the situation in Uganda, by continuing the Op long term we hope to uncover sensitive or embarrassing material on the Ugandan government which may help persuade them to stop their state sponsored terror campaign against their LGBT citizens. At the very least, we hope to demonstrate that the world is watching and that the actions of a country’s government have consequences.

It’s been reported that Uganda has taken out of the bill the part that condemns LGBTs to death. Does that change the plans of Anonymous?

What motivates you personally to support LGBT rights? Are you a member of the LGBT Community? I have a lot of friends and family members who live various lifestyles and come from various backgrounds, early on in life I learned to judge people by their actions rather than pass judgments on people based on generalizations. It disgusts me that any government would seek to scapegoat any portion of their population, especially for something like consensual sex between adults. You’ve already hacked several Ugandan government websites. What else can you expose that would be worse for the Ugandan government? By hacking and making sure that the hacks are publicized we help raise awareness in

It does not. From our understanding of the remaining clauses of the bill, although the exact details are being shrouded in secrecy, it still allows for the murder of anyone who practices homosexuality by their “victim” (Clause 5: “A victim of homosexuality shall not be penalized for any crime committed as a direct result of his or her involvement in homosexuality.”), this and the clauses allowing for the imprisonment for 3 years of anyone who fails to report an “offense” make this law just as odious as it was before the revisions. The situation in Uganda is a clear case to me personally of something originally coming to our attention because of lulz (the crazy homophobic rant by Ugandan Pastor Martin Ssempa that got various remixes all over YouTube) then gradually becoming a clear moral issue as we looked past the amusement. What other operations regarding LGBT rights around the world are you planning? In which countries? We have no specific plans at this time for any other LGBT related Ops, although I am sure there are many such ongoing Ops within other Anon hives. If the opportunity to defend the rights of any group persecuted unfairly by their government arises, you can be sure that the government in question should expect Anonymous.

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

December 19, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ SouthFloridaGayNews.com

U.S. NEWS

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Ricky Martin Wishes He Could Come Out Again From the Associated Press

atin superstar Ricky Martin is telling a U.N. conference on homophobia that he wishes he could come out again so he could tell people struggling with their identities that “it’s just beautiful - you find love.” Martin said Tuesday that “for many years, I lived in fear ... because I was hating myself because I grew up listening to a very crooked concept: ’You’re gay. You belong in hell.’” Martin, who is currently starring on Broadway in “Evita,” said it was amazing to be at the United Nations surrounded by people “fighting for one cause - equality and love and social justice.” He praised U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who got a standing ovation after telling the conference that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people - the LGBTs - “are entitled to the same rights as everyone else.” “They, too, are born free and equal,” Ban said. “I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them in their struggle for human rights.” The secretary-general said he is “pained” that more than 76 countries still criminalize

homosexuality. “I am here to again denounce violence and demand action for true equality,” he said. While the past decade has seen farreaching reforms in Europe, the Americas and a number of African and Asian countries, Ban said, in a number of countries - including Ukraine - draft laws have been proposed that would criminalize public discussion of homosexuality. South African singing star Yvonne Chaka Chaka, a human rights activist and goodwill ambassador for the U.N. children’s fund who is married and has four children, said “I think straight people should respect other people because, for me, I don’t think there’s anything crooked about LGBT.” Their only “crime,” she said, “is because they love the same gender.” Chaka said her husband is a prince who is allowed to have three or four wives “but I would not let him.” I will never allow him to have a second wife, and he knows that. That is why he chose me,” she said. “If he wants to, goodbye.”

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December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

U.S. NEWS

‘Hero’ A

Gay employee in mall shooting helps customers to safety

By Sergio N. Candido

young gay man who works at Macy’s rushed in and out of the shopping center taking customers to safety during the fatal Oregon mall shooting on Dec. 11. Allan Fonseca first guided customer Jocelyn Lay off the building then went back inside twice to lead two more shoppers out of the mall. “Allan is my hero because he knew what to do, he said that we needed to evacuate, took me by the hand and led me down the escalator and out to safety,” Lay told ABC’s Good Morning America, with Fonseca by her side. The shooter, 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts, killed two people after he opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle at Oregon Clackamas Town Center Mall, before turning the gun on himself, the New York Times reported. Fonseca, who works at the Lancome makeup counter inside Macy’s, said he felt he needed to go back inside and help people because he was familiar with the exits.

“I felt that if I knew how to get out of the mall and out to safety then I should share that knowledge with everyone else, like the shoppers who don’t come here regularly and don’t know all of the exits,” Fonseca told Good Morning America. “So I decided to go back up because I wanted to see if there was anybody in panic or didn’t know where to go.” According to The Advocate, Fonseca has three times earned scholarships from the the LGBTQ Greater Seattle Business Association.

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Allan Fonseca and Jocelyn Lay survived the shooting at the Clackamas Town Center mall in suburban Portland, Ore. on Dec. 11, 2012.

U.S. NEWS

Bigotry is not a Christmas Value Gays continuing campaign against Salvation Army By Malissa Rogers, Dot429

veryone can recall the site of a system.” His words echoed throughout the red bucket and the sound of a gay community and sparked international bell outside of their supermarket, outcry. essentially marking the beginning In response to Craibe’s statement, of the Christmas season. However, the Salvation Army spokesperson Major Bruce Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign has Harmer released his own statement, “The recently made headlines again as LGBT Salvation Army believes in the sanctity of all rights advocates urge holiday shoppers to human life…we consider every person to be stop donating to the organization. of infinite value, and each life a gift from God America’s Blog has encouraged LGBT to be cherished, nurtured and preserved.” supporters to donate downloadable The Salvation Army began in London, “vouchers” to the bell ringers, instead founded in 1865 by Methodist preacher of money, to show that “bigotry is not a William Booth. Today, the organization Christmas value.” The voucher states that as operates throughout the world in 122 a supporter of the LGBT community, “I will countries; helping the poor and those not donate” to a discriminatory organization, afflicted by addiction. However, the such as the Salvation Army. Salvation Army’s “Position Statement” states “George Hood, a senior official with that homosexual conduct can only be guided the Salvation Army, said the group never by scripture, which states that intimacy discriminates between members in delivering its of the same sex is services,” the forbidden. Wa s h i n g t o n Within recent Post stated. years, collection “But on the amounts have question of been considerably hiring gay large for the employees [he Salvation Army, said] ‘it really but not all of that begins to chew money reaches away at the poor, hungry or theological homeless people. fabric of who According to the we are.’” New York Times, This isn’t each local unit of George Hood, a senior official with the Salvation Army the first time “red kettles” pays that the ten percent of its Salvation Army’s views have been brought revenue to one of the forty state or regional to the public’s attention. In November divisions throughout the country, and every 2011, Bilerco Project blogger Bil Browning division pays 10 percent to one of four called on holiday shoppers to halt their national territories. In the end each of the donations to the Salvation Army because four national territories provides a quarter of of the organizations conservative stance on the government’s budget, which could mean homosexuality. that the money donated could ultimately be “The Salvation Army discriminates against used for lobbying in Washington. gay people, and discriminating donors “The Salvation Army has a history of should find another charity this Christmas active discrimination against gays and than evangelical bigots who advocate against lesbians,” Browning said. “While you our civil rights,” blogger John Aravosis might think you’re helping the hungry and writes. “The organization also has a record homeless by dropping a few dollars in the of actively lobbying governments worldwide bright red buckets, not everyone can share for anti-gay policies -- including an attempt in the donations.” to make consensual gay sex illegal.” Earlier this year, Major Anthony Craibe, SFGN and Dot429 are media partners. Visit an Australian Salvation Army official them at Dot429.com implied that LGBT people should be put to death and that it was “a part of our belief

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

U.S. NEWS

Dump Trump! Macy’s says no way By Malissa Rogers, Dot429

Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore

acy’s, the second-largest de- recalled. “But I won’t be there this Thursday. partment-chain in the United I can no longer support a brand that gives a States, has recently come un- platform to such a bigot.” der fire for selling the Donald Macy’s loyalty rating amongst female conTrump brand at their stores. However, the sumers in November topped 31 percent, but company has decided to continue their re- in one month the rating has plummeted to a lationship with the controversial business- mere 17 percent according to figures released man. by YouGov BrandIndex. The loyalty rating “Macy’s marketis based on if ing and merchanthat customer dising offerings would recomare not representamend the store tive of any politito friends and cal position. Ours family. Based is a free society on the numcompromised of a bers many wide range of viewcustomers points,” Macy’s have opted out President and CEO of shopping Terry Lundgren there. wrote in an email. Macy’s FaceThe department book page is store is currently inundated under pressure from with “Dump their customers, Trump” rewho have urged the marks, but retailer to “Dump there are also Trump.” The contromany cusversy has stemmed tomers who from Trump’s recent have vowed attacks on President to continue Obama and his idea their support Donald Trump that global warming of the retail is a part of a Chinese chain. Regardconspiracy to destroy American capitalism. less of customer’s opinions, Donna Sturgess, A “Dump Trump” petition has been cre- a founding partner of Buyology Inc., a New ated by Angelo Carusone on SignOn.org, York-based advertising firm (that does not with more than 678,000 signatures being work with Macy’s), said that she believes gathered, in an attempt to prove to Macy’s the retailer will probably not sever ties with that customers will not support the retailer Trump until after the holidays. if they do not “Dump Trump.” In November, “Macy’s has a significant amount of more than 50 people stood outside of Macy’s Trump-branded merchandise on its shelves flagship store in New York and cut up their right now,” Sturgess said according to the Macy’s credit cards in protest of the retailer’s Huffington Post. “So it’s highly unlikely that decision to continue their relationship with they’ll end the partnership and eat the cost the mogul. of that merchandise before the busy holiday Jenny Izenstark, a once dedicated Macy’s season.” customer, joined the protestors in New York. “I stood in this same spot last year watching SFGN and Dot429 are media partners. Visit the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” she them at Dot429.com

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

U.S. NEWS

Suspended!

ESPN radio hosts in hot water over Comments about transgender basketball player

By Jason St. Amand, EDGE

wo ESPN Radio hosts have been “That’s an awfully large woman and I’m not suspended after they spewed anti- sure how to answer that because all sports transgender remarks against a have unique individuals in them,” Logan 50-year-old transgender woman McKechnie, an attorney and commissioner who received media attention after she made for the Central Valley Conference told the her debut on a community college basketball newspaper. “Is it fair that all professional team, OutSports reports. sports athletes have to face Peyton Manning Earlier this month, Gabrielle Ludwig, each year?’ he said. ’I don’t think, frankly, a six-foot-eight 220-pound Desert Storm fairness enters into it.” veteran, made international headlines after But while some took an issue against she made her college basketball debut for Ludwig’s physical appearance, Steve Czaban Mission College -- a community college in and Andy Pollin, radio hosts for ESPN980, Santa Carla, Calif. According to the Oakland attacked the athlete’s identity by referring (Calif.) Tribune, Ludwig, to Ludwig as “he/she” born Robert John Ludwig, and “it” while making is considered to be the rude comments about her first transgender athlete appearance, OutSports to play college sports as notes. Czaban even said both a man and woman. that transgender athletes The basketball player, should not be allowed to who first played the play sports. sport as a man nearly “Whatever you’ve got 32 years ago, completed to do to scratch that inner her transition in July and itch and quell those inner was allowed to play on demons, that’s fine,” he the college’s team thanks said. “But don’t go playing to Santa Clara athletic sports then. And don’t director Mike Perez and go playing sports saying, coach Corey Cafferata, ’but I’ve go the rights of who supported Ludwig. Gabrielle Ludwig, a Desert Storm veteran everyone else.’ “ The article notes After the news outlet that the California Community College urged ESPN to take action against the men, Athletic Association decides gender by who issued a brief apology on Monday, it birth certificate. In order to be a member was announced on Tuesday that Czaban of the team, Ludwig had to petition a court and Pollin have been temporarily suspended and provide medical documents that she from hosting their show. underwent a sex change. On Nov. 30, an “We strongly believe two of our employees Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled crossed the line when discussing a tanssexual that Ludwig was a woman and awarded her person on their program last Thursday,” with a birth certificate reflecting her proper ESPN980’s officials said in a statement. gender. “Such intolerance and insensitivity will Some have argued that her size is an never be tolerated by this company. Due unfair advantage when facing off against to the nature of their conversation, the rival teams, who are about 30 years younger pair have been temporarily removed from than Ludwig, but the commissioner for the ESPN980′s Sports Reporter program.” Coast Conference, Dale Murray, says he has Additionally, GLAAD addressed the not seen evidence that the basketball player situation and pointed out that the hosts only has an advantage. apologized for calling Ludwig “it” “but failed “She just happens to be a bit taller than to address the rest of an extremely offensive everyone else,” he said. “What if she was segment.” The organization has also offered born a female and six-feet five-inches? “to sit down with Cazban and Pollin and She’s a little older than other community leaders from the transgender community to college players, so that’s probably to her talk about the issues that affect transgender disadvantage.” Americans, particularly those who are Nevertheless, some are still uncomfortable involved in athletics.” with Ludwig’s stature and would like to see SFGN and Edge are media partners. Visit her removed from the team. them at EdgeOnTheNet.com

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

U.S. NEWS

Low Numbers F

Three percent of adult LGBTs donate to national groups

By Dori Zinn

or the second year in a row, three percent of LGBT adults have donated to 40 national LGBT organizations, despite growing support for equal rights, according to a recent study by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP). The 2012 National LGBT Movement Report states that the number of individual donors increased from 2010 to 2011 after declining over the years, but the number of LGBT adults donating to participating LGBT organizations is at three percent, up from last year, which was just under that.

on long term concerns they often work Mushovic said donations are still on more immediate needs,” Schwartz up, even with the 45 percent donor said. “[Our Donors] are experiencing turnover rate — where contributors immediate gratification as they make a one-time donation and don’t are personally benefiting from our make one the following year. Despite programming for which they know they that attrition, there is still some were a part of making happen through positivity in numbers. their donation.” “We’ve done non-profit benchmark The majority of Aqua’s funding and that rate is better than other noncomes from a combination of private profit sectors,” she said, noting that all donations, corporate sponsors, events high turnover rates is something all and grants. Schwartz said that grants non-profits struggle with. “We’re not are less than 10 percent of their total experiencing worse turnovers.” revenue, so the reliance on public support is heavy. Despite national organizations using funds to support local communities, more LGBT adults seem to invest more in their local organizations. Mushovic said donors may not know their money goes back to communities, though not necessarily ones near them. The 40 participating In 2010, the top 10 anti-LGBT Organizations organizations collectively combined had $323 million represent 69 percent of the in expenses — more than budgets of all LGBT social justice twice the total for all proLGBT organizations in the organizations, which experienced a report, at $125 million. 17 percent increase in revenue With many anti-LGBT from last year. organizations raising double the amount of their pro counterparts, it’s Individual donors represent the largest difficult to compete for source of overall revenue for the more airplay. organizations, at 36 percent, “We’re greatly outthe majority of donations being less resourced by our opponents,” Mushovic than $1,000. said. “The political organizing, free access to The 2012 report was the first year radio and TV has come participating organizations were about because they have a very strong base of asked to provide information on staff religious networks where ethnicity and race. More than 25 it is easier to coordinate percent of the organizations funding.” Focus on the reported that the majority of the Family, one of the top anti-LGBT organizations, senior staff identify as people of color. earned $110 million alone Seven percent identify as in 2010. 2011 data for antitransgender. LGBT organizations in the report is not yet available.

ts h dy g u i st hl g e Hi th om r f

Ineke Mushovic, MAP’s executive director

Ineke Mushovic, the Executive Director of MAP, said while LGBT adults give just as much as non-LGBT adults, they might be giving to other causes. “[LGBT adults] may not be aware of national groups and might be giving locally instead of nationally,” Mushovic said. “For the average LGBT American, they may not be aware of the work that is on-going for the national legal and advocacy groups.” Robin Schwartz, executive director of Aqua Foundation for Women in Miami, sees it the same way. Since they are a local organization, more people are inclined to donate because it goes directly back to their community. “While local organizations do work

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

STATE NEWS

Orange County Passes LGBT Protections for Students, Teachers Neel Amin, MD

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By Sergio N. Candido

he Orange County School Board who identify as a different gender to go into approved on the early hours of the locker room or bathroom of the opposite Dec. 12 adding protections based sex. “There’s nothing to prevent a male teachon sexual orientation and gender er from turning into Sally, and the princiidentity for students and teachers. The board voted 6 to 2 in favor of adding pal cannot fire that person, cannot reassign them, because that the LGBT-inclusive language, WFTV 9 reports. would be considered discrimination,” said John “Those folks deserve Stemberger of the Florito know that they’re not da Family Policy Council. going to be fired from According to WFTV their job at any moment 9, WFTV school officials just because of who they said there were accomare,” Michael Farmer, Equality Florida statemodations in place for transgender students. wide field coordinator, Orange County Public told the television staSchools covers Orange tion. County, which encomOpponents of the meapasses Orlando, Winter sure, primarily the FamPark, Ocoee, Winderily Policy Council, said mere, Winter Garden, the new language is “very Apopka, Maitland, and dangerous,” arguing the Equality Florida Field Coordinator/GSA Network Coordinator, Michael Farmer Eatonville. policy will allow students

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December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Congratulations, You Two! A very happy day for local favorite Terry DeCarlo

eâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to offer our best wishes and congratulations to newlyweds Terry DeCarlo of Broward House and his husband William Huelsman. The two got married in New York City on Saturday, Dec. 15, right outside the Rockefeller center.

December 19, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ SouthFloridaGayNews.com

LOCAL NEWS

Boca Appoints Openly Gay 17-year-old to Community Relations Board By Dylan Bouscher

yler Morrison went from speaking out against the Boca City Council’s lack of LGBT protection, to becoming one its employees, who is now unprotected by a 46-year-old antidiscrimination policy. Boca Raton became the only city in Palm Beach County to opt-out of protecting its LGBT employees when it passed Ordinance 5161 in January 2011. Morrison, a gay 17-yearold Boca resident, introduced himself to the City Council at its Nov. 14 meeting. Once there, he urged the council members to update a 46-year-old anti-discrimination policy to include protection for the city’s LGBT employees. When city council member Constance Scott supported Morrison and asked the rest of the council what prevented them from moving into the 21st century, Morrison cried. Then, at their Dec. 11 meeting, the Boca City Council unanimously appointed Morrison to the city’s community relations board. “He seemed like such an articulate and dedicated young man who wanted to get involved,” Susan Haynie, Boca’s Deputy Mayor, told SFGN after the meeting. “And I suggested that serving on one of the city’s advisory boards was the perfect vehicle for him to get involved with our community.” Morrison, however, wasn’t at the meeting where the council appointed him. He was playing oboe at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in his school’s holiday concert. “I tried to log on to watch the meeting live, and the Internet wasn’t allowing me to view the live video feed,” Morrison said. “So it was a little frustrating at first.” Then Rand Hoch, the President of the Palm Beach Human Rights Council (PBCHRC), left Morrison a face book comment congratulating him for the unanimous appointment. “This makes you, probably, the youngest openly gay appointed public official in Florida. Congrats,” Hoch wrote. The PBCHRC is a local non-profit focused on eliminating discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and

gender expression. Recently, they have been Boca Deputy Mayor Susan Haynie agrees pushing the Boca City Council to rescind Morrison needs time. Ordinance 5161 and update its policy along “I would like to speak with him about with Morrison. that,” Haynie said. “I really want to educate “I’m not so interested in the title or being him on what kind of a commitment that the first this, or first that,” Morrison said. “It truly is too. But for now I think board service doesn’t matter unless I do something about is the perfect place for him.” it. I’m looking forward to what I can do.” In the meantime, Morrison is focused Hoch came across the community on using his new position to expand LGBT relations board vacancy while researching rights in the city. He’s starting with the antithe Boca city council’s anti-discrimination discrimination policy. policy. He also encouraged Morrison to “Absolutely, absolutely, 100 percent, apply for the position. there’s not a doubt in my mind it should be “We discussed it, and he thought that updated,” Morrison said. would be something worthwhile to apply to because, at the time, there was no LGBT representation on the Board,” Hoch said. “And he’s extremely interested in participatory government.” Extremely interested is an u n d e rs t at e m e nt . Morrison wants to run for Mayor of Boca Raton in 2014. “I think he’s got to put in his time, before he becomes a viable candidate for Mayor,” Hoch said. “One of the ways you do that is to run for city council and one of the ways you do that is to be on the community relations board. But there’s a lot of time between now and March 2014, when the election is. Who knows, with his experience on the community relations board, he could be a viable Boca Raton Deputy Mayor Susan Haynie candidate.”

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

LOCAL NEWS

Closed for Business! $750,000 judgment in yearlong case shuts down Matty’s By Richard Gary

popular Wilton Manors watering hole has closed down months after a ruling it was responsible for defrauding Alibi owners Jackson Padgett and Mark Negrete. Last year, SFGN published a series of articles involving the contentious litigation between Alibi owners Jackson Padgett and Mark Negrete, and the former owners who sold them the bar, George Kessinger and Terry L. Norman. As the case wound its way through the court dockets, Judge Carol Lisa Phillips made a number of findings reaching the conclusion that Padgett and Negrete were wrongly defrauded by the actions of both Kessinger and Norman.

Judge Phillips found as a matter of law that Terry Norman specifically breached the non compete agreement he had entered by forming a business relationship with Matty’s on the Drive. Eventually, Judge Marc H. Gold enjoined Norman and Matty’s from any further employment, consulting, management or financial transactions with each other. The ongoing court battle ended with a consent judgment where Matty’s was liable to Padgett and Negrette for three quarters of a million dollars. The ruling finds that Norman engaged in “intentional, malicious, and willful acts” designed to cause harm to the plaintiffs. For more information visit SFGN.com/barwars

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WWW.TINTWORLD.COM/FL/FT-LAUDERDALE-023 December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

LOCAL NEWS

UPDATE:

Man Wearing KKK Costume Charged for Beating Drag Queen on Halloween By Ryan Dixon

[Corbin] reached up and pulled my wig off, at the same time grabbing my arm and pulling me off the stage. I landed with all of my weight on my right leg and I felt something pop really bad.” Walters said Corbin then leaned over him and Walters kicked at him. “I was going to kill him,” Walters said. For his part, Corbin maintains he was attacked first. He has retained attorney Thomas Morse to defend him, dropping his previous lawyer, Jeff Dean. Morse told SFGN he has filed a motion to dismiss the case based on the fact that this case is “completely ridiculous”. “To say he (Walters) was struck without notice is ridiculous,” Morse said. “It’ll most likely get thrown out.” Morse also contends that the state has no witnesses and is actively seeking them. “They (the State) has decided my client is their guy and they’re sticking with him even without witnesses to the event,” Morse said. Walters is pleased that charges have been filed, but wants things to just hurry up and end. “This is an unfortunate sit for everyone involved,” Walters said, “I have faith in the system and that the right thing will be done.” submitted photo

man dressed in a Ku Klux Klan costume during a Halloween party in Wilton Manors has been charged for attacking a drag queen outside a restaurant, police said. The Broward County State Attorney’s office charged Boyd Corbin, 44, with assault with a deadly weapon and battery, both third degree felonies. Michael Walters, a local Dame Edna impersonator, claimed Corbin attacked him with a burning torch during a Halloween costume contest last October at Alibi, a gay bar and restaurant. “I was onstage and it happened so fast. He was behind me and I kept seeing out of my peripheral vision a burning torch,” Walters told SFGN in a previous interview. Corbin was photographed that night (Oct. 31) by several people carrying a wooden cross and a lit garden torch — and dressed as a Klansmen. Walters added: “I turned around and said ‘put that thing out’ and he just kept waving it around, he even thrust it at me a couple of times. Had he come any closer I would have gone up like Michael Jackson,” Walters said regarding the chemicals in his wig. “I grabbed it and tried to blow it out but [the torch] didn’t go out – that’s when

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

PASSAGES

Peter Mangone Loses Battle with Cancer By Sean Devaney

recorded the film, but his fascination never died. “I was always aware of his fascination with Marilyn Monroe and the film,” said his partner of 33 years Dan Pye. “Every time we visited New York City and walked past the hotel he’d say ‘Fuck if I only hadn’t thrown that film away.’” Mangone recently lost his battle with lung cancer. He was 73. Pye is devastated. “I’m just going to miss his love of life, love

a long term supporter of The Pride Center, Peter Mangone,” said Robert Boo, Executive Director of The Pride Center. “Peter was a valued member of our Founders Circle. Our heart goes out to Dan Pye during this time of loss.” There will be a celebration of Mangone’s life sometime in January. “I learned from Peter to always look and see the best in people,” Pye said. “That there is good in everybody, maybe not right on the

surface, but it’s always there.” Mangone is survived by Pye, his three children and their spouses, Dennis, Gregory and Maria, and Jill and Intesar, one grandson, Gregory Jr., and his brother Louis as well as two wheaten terriers Katie and Lucas and one cat, Pussy Cat. To learn more about Peter, his film and his life visit MarilynMonroeNYC1955.com.

Photo courtesy of Steven Shires

airstylist to the stars. Salon owner. Guinness World Book of Records-holder. Speed skating champion. Roller Derby star. Throughout his life, Peter Mangone of Fort Lauderdale wore many hats. But what he may be best remembered for was his lifelong fascination with Marilyn Monroe. That fascination went viral in 2002 when he discovered a five-and-a-half-minute film he had made of the iconic movie star in 1955.

Peter Mangone (left) with his partner of 33 years Dan Pye (right). Mangone died Dec. 11. He was 73. Mangone was best known to the world for his life long fascination with Marilyn Monroe and the film he made of her in 1955. But according to Pye, Mangone was also a “brilliant cook. By all accounts from his friends and family Peter made the best meat balls in the world.”

Mangone was 14 at the time — Monroe, 29. It all happened when Mangone started skipping school and staking out the Gladstone Hotel on East 52nd Street in New York City where Monroe was living after her divorce from Joe DiMaggio and her dismissal from her contract at 20th Century Fox. One morning Mangone took an eightmillimeter Revers camera from his brother and headed downtown and met Monroe just as she was leaving the hotel to go shopping. She spotted Mangone, waved and winked at him, and invited him to join her. At some point the film mysteriously disappeared, and Mangone just thought he had accidentally thrown it away. Much to his surprise and delight, his brother stumbled upon the film almost 50 years later in their father’s house. Up until that point he had never even watched it. Mangone never saw Monroe again after he

of people, his young vibrant glass is always half full attitude,” Pye said. “He was my greatest cheerleader.” After Mangone rediscovered the film, which was still in mint condition, he and it became famous. He appeared on the Today Show and was interviewed by Katie Couric and numerous media outlets wrote about his story including the BBC and New York Times. Even now, ten years later, the film is still making the rounds. Its latest stop is at the Danziger Gallery in New York City from Jan. 10 to Feb. 9 in an exhibition called “Marilyn Monroe Rediscovered: The lost film of Peter Mangone (New York, 1955).” Mangone supported several charitable organizations, including the Gamma Nu Foundation, National Gay Lesbian Task Force, Lambda Legal, and The Pride Center in Wilton Manors. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Letter to the Editor

Publix Problems Note from Managing Editor Gideon Grudo: SFGN received the letter below in late November. It alleges that Publix administration discriminated against an employee who requested bereavement leave for a partner’s father’s death and was denied. The discrimination is allegedly related to the employee’s sexual orientation. SFGN contacted Publix to get a copy of the bereavement policy and to get a comment. Publix both declined comment and refused to share its policy with SFGN, except to say that Publix covers “spouses, as defined by each of the states in which we operate, children of the associate, parents, siblings, grandparents, and in-laws. We offer our associates three days of bereavement pay if they meet the criteria outlined above.”

for the time spent with both my parents. Mid-week after arriving in Massachusetts I asked Richard to look into flights, I needed him by my side and he needed to be with his family, as most spouses would expect under such emotional, trying circumstances.

PUBLIX HAS NO HEART...

My partner (of eighteen years) Richard and I live in Fort Lauderdale. When we moved south from Massachusetts some years ago we decided Fort Lauderdale was the right destination to settle down. My parents lived there, so it was an easy decision. We wanted to be close - providing them with any support they may need. My Dad passed away November 9, 2012 after a long fight with Cancer. At the age of 87 he decided he had had enough. So, after much thought he planned to head back to Massachusetts along with my Mom to spend his last days surrounded by his children, sons / daughters in-laws, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. I flew north on Saturday, November 3 with the thought of being there with my Dad, Mom and family. My Dad was under Hospice care and had stopped all medical treatments. It was just a matter of time for all of us to say our final goodbyes. The plan we thought, was my partner would fly out as soon as the Hospice caregivers told us it was time. I hoped my partner would see my Dad and have an opportunity to say goodbye and to be with our family during this difficult time. My partner Richard was such a big part of Mom and Dad’s life in Fort Lauderdale. We did our best to always be there for them and assist in any way. We had ten years of good times, trying times, tears and laughter. Richard is not only the best partner I could hope for, but he is and has always been a great Son inlaw to my parents. We will be forever grateful

Richard looked into flights. Additionally, was keeping his Department Manager informed as to how my Dad was doing and expressing his desire to be with his family, she was very supportive, kind, expressing sympathy and wanting to give him time off to be home with family.

We realized Richard would need to take time without pay, because Publix Supermarkets does not recognize domestic partnerships. But, never did we think store administration; both the Store Manager and District Manager would deny his request for time off. Their reasoning, it is against Publix policy and the volume of business does not allow for time off at this point. We were both shocked! This is how Publix treats my partner who has worked so hard for them for ten years - on average of 60 hours a week! Publix claims to be a community focused company. Well, apparently not if you are gay! Do you think we would have had the same outcome if it were a straight couple of eighteen years? I don’t think so! Publix needs to address this lack of respect to my partner, my family, and the Gay

Community. A public apology and change of policy is in order immediately! I spent two weeks in Massachusetts mourning with family, and in the end so emotionally run down was sick the second week, and still sick. I can’t express how difficult this was for my partner to be home alone throughout this time. Nor can I express how difficult it was for me to be without my partner at a time when I needed him most. Many have told us; he should have just gone. Well, easy said. We can’t afford to lose an income. And no doubt, Publix would have fire him. The day of my Dads funeral service, the Store Manager approached my partner to express condolences for the passing of “his friends Dad”. What a slap in the face. With the amount of LGBT customers and employees, one would think Publix could do better. And leave the upper management political and homophobic ideology in silence. My hope in making this public is to force Publix to admit a bad administrative decision was made by both the Store Manager and District Manager, with negative consequences to follow as a result. And, to see this supermarket giant step forward, get with the times. Implement domestic partnership policies company wide. Show the community they are truly a company that values the diversity of an entire employee / customer base, not just our dollars spent at the register... Additionally, I ask others, especially the LGBT community to write Publix, post on the Publix Lakeland (Corp.) web page and voice their displeasure with the above facts. Until then, I will shop elsewhere... Sean Devaney Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33309

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

WINTER 2013

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

VOICE

Leading the Charge Photo by Dennis Dean

Inside This Issue:

LIFE Program Graduation

PG. 4

New Board Chair, Ilene Berliner

World AIDS Day Candlelight Vigil

HotSpots Holiday Celebration

Founders Reception at Gallery One

PG. 6

PG. 9

Live Long and Prosper: New LBT Women’s Health Directory Launches By Jay Mandel

ould not it be wonderful for all women in our community to live longer, happier and healthier lives? Now, with continual advances in medicine and burgeoning technology, they can. Over 75 women and men gathered at The Pride Center recently to learn

PG. 11

New Pride Center Executive Committee boasts talent and expertise

By Kevin Murdoch

013 will bring change to The United States and to The Pride Center. The 2012 election represented one of the most volatile political elections in our country’s history. It illustrated the great divide in our country, but also set the tone for change. For the country and for The Pride Center, the next four years will hold exciting advances for members of the LGBT Community. The Pride Center recognizes these possibilities and believes the Center plays an essential part in setting the stage for change within our community. With that in mind, the Board for the Pride Center is proud to announce our 2013 Executive committee. about the newly launched LBT Women’s Health Directory at www.LBTHealth.org Over a year in development, planning, interviewing and outreach, the Directory offers a user friendly, online database of culturally competent health care providers in South Florida. Thanks to the benevolence and generosity of a grant from The Aqua Foundation for Women, The Pride Center was able to spearhead a community collaboration to provide a useful, life saving tool for women in Broward, MiamiDade and Palm Beach counties. Robin Schwartz, Aqua’s Executive Director praised The Pride Center for it efforts of “collaboration amongst organizations.” Later, she said she was most proud, “it’s going to save people’s lives.” The Pride Center organized

•Ilene Berliner – Board Chair •Jim Walker - Vice Chair •Chris Caputo - Secretary •Craig Engel – Treasurer “This is a very exciting time for the Center”, says Robert Boo, Executive Director. “It has been many years since the Center had a Board Chair representing the LBT women’s community, and I am very pleased that Ilene has accepted the position. She has provided consistent, quality leadership to the Center over the years.” Ilene Berliner, a native New Yorker, is no stranger to South Florida, having attended the University of Miami after High School. +Continued on pg. 3

work among Women in Network, SunServe and BLAST to develop and market the resource. The Center hired Ellen Slavin to help coordinate these efforts. “The collective efforts of so many contributed to this directory,” says Kristofer Fegenbush, Pride Center Deputy Directory. “We now have a resource highlighting professionals Photo by Kristofer Fegenbush

+Continued on pg. 3

VOICE Winter 2013

very New Year brings hope and optimism that old slates get to be wiped clean and started afresh. The elections are finally behind us, so we can move forward to more emergent topics. The Supreme Court has announced its intention to finally tackle the subject of marriage equality and the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). I remain optimistic that the Justices couldn’t possibly justify the decision to deny equal rights to citizens of our great country. But I also wonder how or if the Supreme Court would keep the decision at the state level which

wouldn’t always help our cause. Only time will tell. In 2013 the Pride Center will continue to grow and evaluate the needs of our community and how we can fill that need. Our work in the transgender community continues to grow. Transgender rights are civil rights. There are only 13 states and the District of Columbia who have passed laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Florida is not one of those states. The Center will continue to provide a safe and welcoming space to our transgender community. We continue to improve and strengthen our services to the LBT women’s community. During 2012 we launched the LBT Health Directory, established funding for our Women with Pride Coordinator, elected Ilene Berliner as our new Board Chair and recently received a new grant for 2013 from Aqua Foundation. Our HIV Prevention and education programs continue to grow with funding from the Department

of Health. We will continue to implement strategic, effective, costefficient, high-impact HIV prevention programs to address Broward County’s HIV/AIDS epidemic, among the worst in the nation. New grants will continue and expand our PALS Project services, including the LIFE and CHOICES programs. These grants will allow us to expand work in HIV testing, condom distribution, and traditional and internet outreach. We also will launch targeted outreach, education, testing and prevention work among LGBT business and LGBT-affirming communities of faith in 2013. 2012 was a great year for the Center and 2013 looks to be even better. We will celebrate our 20th anniversary. China is the traditional gift and platinum is the modern anniversary gift to give. I’m going to break with tradition and ask that you give us your time, your attention and your support. I wish all of you a happy and healthy new year!

residents and visitors to South Florida. The Pride Center is a major site for HIV testing, prevention, education, support, holistic health and counseling. Stop in and learn about all we do: a community Flea Market; women’s health initiatives; family outreach days; unique exercise classes for women, seniors, men and more; financial investment series; art gallery openings; adult educational opportunities through Pride University; Bingo; “Coffee and

Conversation” events for seniors; music events; a variety of health fairs; and a spectrum of creative symposiums, speakers, forums and events for the entire community. We own six acres of property with 30,000 square feet of office space that provide homes for programs and services, as well as synergy among organizations. Our Vision is to be the premier point of connection for our community.

About the Pride Center

Photo by Tolby Blades Harmer

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

Looking Forward

A Letter From Robert Boo, Executive Director of The Pride Center at Equality Park

The Pride Center’s Mission is:

“We provide a welcoming, safe space-an inclusive home--that celebrates, nurtures and empowers the LGBTQ communities and our friends and neighbors in South Florida.” For 20 years, the Pride Center’s programs and services have met the distinct socio-economic, health, social and safety needs of the LGBTQ community. More than 17,000 adult and youth attended activities at the Center over the past year. We host more than 60 regularly-meeting groups each month. Support, social and educational groups focus on women, seniors, youth, men, transgender, recovery, health, the arts, athletics, spirituality, games and more. Outreach activities over the past year directly impacted 26,262

The Pride Center 2040 N. Dixie Highway Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33305 Mail Correspondence to: P.O. Box 70518 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33307-0518 (954) 463-9005 Fax (954) 764-6522 Email: info@PrideCenterFlorida.org Website: www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

Board of Directors

Ilene Berliner, Chair James Walker, Vice Chair Chris Caputo, Secretary Craig Engel, CPA, Treasurer Ted Adcock Mitchell Bloom Mark Budwig

Irwin Drucker Brenda Hartley George Kling Lea P. Krauss, Esq, P.A. Leslie Tipton Richard Safaty

Pride Center Staff

Robert Boo, Executive Director, rboo@PrideCenterFlorida.org Kristofer Fegenbush, MSW, Deputy Director, kfegenbush@PrideCenterFlorida.org Janet Weissman, Business Manager, jweissman@PrideCenterFlorida.org Jorge Gardela, Health Outreach Director, jgardela@PrideCenterFlorida.org Frank Gurucharri, PALS Project Manager, fgurucharri@PrideCenterFlorida.org Samantha McCoy, Customer Service Coordinator, smccoy@PrideCenterFlorida.org Listron “Blue” Mannix, Minority Testing Initiative Manager, bmannix@PrideCenterFlorida.org Jeff Grigsby, LIFE Coordinator, jgrigsby@PrideCenterFlorida.org Magno Morales, CHOICES Coordinator, mmorales@PrideCenterFlorida.org Andres Santofimio, CRCS Counselor, asantofimio@PrideCenterFlorida.org Emilio Aponte, RESPECT Coordinator, eaponte@PrideCenterFlorida.org Albert Taylor, Health Coordinator, ataylor@PrideCenterFlorida.org S.F. Makalani-Mahee, Data Entry Specialist, smakalani-mahee@PrideCenterFlorida.org Michael Childers, LIFE Goes On Coordinator, mchilders@PrideCenterFlorida.org Donna Woessner, Women with Pride Coordinator, dwoessner@PrideCenterFlorida.org Ellen Slavin, LBT Women’s Health Initiative Coordinator, eslavin@PrideCenterFlorida.org Daniel Dardenne, Testing Specialist, ddardenne@PrideCenterFlorida.org Shanna Ratliff, Information Analyst, sratliff@PrideCenterFlorida.org Norris Wildhagen, Facilities Specialist, facilities@PrideCenterFlorida.org Charles Dickey, Health Counselor, cdickey@PrideCenterFlorida.org Yamil Cruz, Health Educator, ycruz@PrideCenterFlorida.org Gary Sheppard, Testing Specialist, gsheppard@PrideCenterFlorida.org Chris Douglas, Testing Specialist, cdouglas@PrideCenterFlorida.org Ebony Wilson, Testing Specialist, ewilson@PrideCenterFlorida.org Bryan Bowlby, Development Assistant, bbowlby@PrideCenterFlorida.org Dr. David Fawcett, CouplesSpeak Clinical/Program Consultant, dfawcett@PrideCenterFlorida.org Dr. Lincoln Pettaway, CouplesSpeak Evaluation Consultant, lpettaway@PrideCenterFlorida.org Lorenzo Robertson, CouplesSpeak Facilitation Consultant, lroberton@PrideCenterFlorida.org Clarence Collins, Facilities Assistant, ccollins@PrideCenterFlorida.org Robert Miller, Facilities Assistant, rmiller@PrideCenterFlorida.org

The Pride Center Voice

Production Managers: Chris Caputo, Kristofer Fegenbush, Kevin Murdoch Creative Director: Mark Pauciullo Contributing Writers: Charles Dickey, David Griffiths, Frank Gurucharri, S.F. Makalani-Mahee, Jay Mandell, Listron “Blue” Mannix, Kevin Murdoch, Andres Santofimio, Bruce Williams, Robert Boo and Kristofer Fegenbush Photographers: Steven Shires, Pompano Bill, Dennis Dean, Eddie Garcia, Robert Saunders, Denise Spivak, Terry DeCarlo, Donna Woessner, Clarence Collins, Samantha McCoy and Kristofer Fegenbush

The VOICE newsletter is published in the memory and through the donation of the Robert S. Kecskmety Trust.

leadership skills are exceptional. His focus at the Pride Center has been to use technology to more effectively to provide visibility to the services the Center offers. His work with the Marketing Advisory Team has yielded an enhanced website, more consistent branding for the Center and a stronger internet presence. He also has been instrumental in building the Varsity Club, a group focusing on Vice Chair Jim Walker, Secretary Chris Caputo and the younger professional looking Treasurer Craig Engel to get involved. all going to a worthwhile cause. Craig Engel, CPA, recently was The installation of a new Executive appointed as Board Treasurer after serving on The Pride Center’s Finance Committee. A Committee also marks the retirement of South Florida Native, Craig grew up in Miami two long-serving members of the Board: and graduated from Killian High School. Craig Richard Stoll, recent Board President, and Jack earned a degree in Accounting from Florida I Johnson. “The Pride Center and the community n t e r n a t i o n a l University. He has lived in Fort Lauderdale since 1993, began a career in cannot thank both Richard and Jack enough public accounting in 1985 and launched his for their vision, passion, dedication and own practice in 1992. An avid lover of animals, energy,” says Boo. “Richard’s tenure as Board Craig has a home in Victoria Park with bird President has seen the Center enhance aviaries, live-reef fish tanks, waterfalls and services, diversify revenue streams, expand hundreds of animals. Animal rescue agencies programs and plan for the future.” “Each Executive Committee brings very and animal lovers throughout Florida have recognized his home as a sanctuary that unique strengths to the Center,” says Boo. respects and protects animals and nature for “This incoming team boasts extraordinary skills that will benefit the community and take many years. Craig recognizes his job as treasurer as the the Center to the next level. I look forward to person working to keep the Center ‘in the working with them over the coming year.” black’so it can continue to be able to provide the much needed services required in our community. He loves being involved with this great organization and knows his efforts are

+Live Long and Prosper continued from pg. 1 who understand and will treat LBT women with respect and compassion. Spread the word! We’re committed to improving access to healthcare for women.” Even with continuing debate in Washington about universal healthcare, South Florida women now can choose culturally competent, empathetic, medical, dental, mental health and alternative practitioners. The providers offer a wide arrange of services, payment plans and options to help ensure all those in need receive the proper and dignified care they deserve. No longer does an individual have to feel shy, embarrassed or “in the closet,” to share what could be vital information with a doctor - the most important partner in her health and well-being. “This directory has been vitally needed within the LBT women’s community,” said Denise Spivak, President of Women in Network, who coordinated the design of the website. “LBT too often have not sought out medical care for reasons that include discrimination, lack of understanding

Photo by Kristofer Fegenbush

Jim Walker is a native Floridian but most recently from the Washington DC area. He and his partner, Lee, moved down to South Florida in 2009. Both Jim and Lee were very involved in various LGBT organizations in DC and wasted no time in getting involved in South Florida. Jim was on the board of Equality Maryland as well as serving on the Executive Committee of the Board of GLAAD. He joined the Board for the Pride Center last year. He and Lee were most instrumental in putting together last year’s most successful fundraiser, an Evening in Paradise. They opened their home to over 300 people and raised almost 60K. Most recently, he completed the SmartRide with The Pride Center by riding 165 miles for those living with HIV and AIDS. Chris Caputo, new Board Secretary, is the founder of MetroMediaWorks, an internet development and marketing firm serving South Florida. He is a recent MBA graduate of Florida Atlantic University and received his Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from New York Institute of Technology. In addition to serving on the board of the Pride Center, Chris is an active member of the Pride Centers Marketing Advisory Team and the Varsity Club. He is also involved with the Gay and Lesbian Business Exchange chapter within the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce. When he’s not engaged in one business or volunteer effort or another, Chris also finds time to run and cycle. Despite being the youngest member of the Executive committee, Chris’ experience and

and lack of insurance. This directory will hopefully make a profound difference in the way that LBT women view health care.” A lovely buffet at the launch event, provided by Courtyard Cafe, complimentary beverages and lively conversation kept all in rapt attention as full color, glossy palm cards were on each table, while a computer slide show promoted the many features the LBT website offered. What was most heartwarming was to see a vast array of people that evening, including Toni, a volunteer at the Center. When asked why she attended, she responded simply and eloquently, “to help give back.” She also said she was fortunate to be in good health, after life saving surgery a few years ago. Currently, there are over 300 health professionals available within the directory, in each of our three adjoining counties. Buddha said, “Health is the greatest gift.” For more information, visit www.lbthealth. org.

VOICE Winter 2013

Her career background includes real estate, information technology, and finance. She was President of Prudential Prime Realty in New Jersey, and Managing Recruiter at Datalink Inc. in Manhattan and Dax Technologies in New Jersey. She was active in many LGBT organizations in New York including Empire Pride, Uncommon Women, GLAAD, and Lambda Legal. After moving to Fort Lauderdale in 2004 Ilene became involved with GLCC/Pride Center first as a Founders Circle member. She most recently served on the Executive Committee as Vice President. She is an Account Executive for Creative Ad Images and works with businesses across the community on marketing and promotional campaigns. Ilene also served as Chairperson of the Pride Center Governance committee and is involved with many women’s movements. She also was a co-founder of The GLBX. “I’m ready to take on the challenge of change and move forward,” says Ilene. She believes it’s important to open The Center’s doors to more women that need a safe environment. She will work to provide more women’s services especially those related to women’s health and HIV testing. Jim Walker, new Board Vice Chair, has never been a stranger to volunteering. “My partner Lee and I moved here two and a half years ago and we knew hardly anyone. Getting involved with the Pride Center has been a great place for us to volunteer as well as to find community. There is a place for everyone at the Center, it really belongs to us all.”

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

+Leading the Charge continued from pg. 1

Nelson Rogers helps provide a home to the community for 14 years

frequently say with pride to newcomers who walk in the door, ‘Welcome to our multi-million dollar home. We are thrilled to be here. Don’t be strangers.’” Nelson Rogers knows a thing or two about The Pride Center. He has volunteered with The Center for almost 14 years. “In the Spring of 1999, I visited the (then) GLCC on the rented third floor of a building in the 1600 block of East Oakland Park Blvd to ask about volunteering,” recalls Nelson. “I wanted to continue to give back to the community, but this time, to the gay community in Fort Lauderdale. Their warm welcome and encouraging words helped me decide to move from Miami to Fort Lauderdale.” After teaching high school biology, health, sex education, and psychology in central Illinois for six years, Nelson had moved to Miami in 1969 where he continued to teach for 26 more years. Nelson found a new home in Fort Lauderdale and at the local LGBT community center. “I was trained for the switchboard to give out information on the Thursday morning shift about gay life in south Florida,” he recalls “I also started facilitating the ‘Men Talk’ group

Did you know? + The Pride Center distributed over 18,500 condoms to community members over the last month alone. That’s a lot of safer sex!

+ Over 1000 visitors and 85 vendors attend our Flea Market on the first Saturday of every month.

Monday nights, which I continued to do and enjoy for the next two years. The same two years I volunteered as the secretary to the president of SAGE and served on the Board of Directors. I added working the flea market switchboard/reception desk when it first started in the building on Andrews Ave.” During his 14 years with the Center, Nelson says he has enjoyed meeting a variety of fun, kind people. “When I can help them adjust to being new in the community, working through something in their lives, or learning about HIV and getting tested, I have good feelings of accomplishment and of making a difference,” he says. “Some of my volunteer partners have become my friends over the years and some have passed away. I have seen the addition and the expansion of many programs, groups, staff, and services. I worked with six or seven Executive Directors, and many staff members, all of whom now have started after I did. “ “Everyone is still as welcoming, encouraging, and appreciative as that first group years ago,” says Nelson. “We are very fortunate to have the Pride Center as the hub of our community here in South Florida.”

+ The Pride Center along with Black Gay Pride South Florida will host our annual Kwanzaa Observance and Leadership Awards ceremony honoring the contributions of people of color and their allies. Join us on Thursday, December 27 at 7 pm at the Center.

This popular annual event gives WIN members and friends a chance to do some early shopping and gives local vendors and craftspeople a chance to sell their wares. “It’s kind of like Small Business Saturday on steroids in one room,” says President Denise Spivak. WIN meets the first Monday of every month at The Pride Center. Photos by Denise Spivak

Photo by Kristofer Fegenbush

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org VOICE Winter 2013

Volunteer Spotlight

WIN Monthly Meeting

LIFE Program Graduation Over 100 people attended the graduation celebration for the most recent cycle of the 18-week LIFE Program with The Pride Center’s PALS Project. Attendees heard inspiring, emotional stories of the changes made in the lives of participants. AHF helped sponsor the evening’s dinner.. Photo by Barnett Comens

CRCS Counselors help clients grow

By Charles Dickey and Andres Santofimio

ll of us live in the stories we create. We are not only the author of our personal story, but we are the main character, the hero in our life story. We also are story tellers: we share our experiences with others as we sojourn through life.

Vision 2015 Contributors JOHN GRAVES SOCIETY John C. Graves Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation of Broward

CORNERSTONE SOCIETY Gil Corwin

PILLAR SOCIETY

Anonymous Jan Carpenter & Dale Russell Mona Pittenger

LUMINARY SOCIETY

J. Michael Heider, DDS & Thom Carr Kenneth M. Goss Former Broward County Mayor Ken Keechl & Ted Adcock John Ramos Richard Schwarz & Tom Massey

STAR LEAGUE

Doug Candler James Jagielski George A. Kling, MD

Estate of James Rampe Attorney Arthur B. Smith Jim Stepp & Peter Zimmer Sunshine Athletic Association Doug Tinklepaugh & James Rickard Estate of Lawrence Zinman

EQUALITY LEAGUE

D.C. Allen & Ken Flick Hansen Reality Vince Di Pietro Paul Galluccio Mark Gordon & Aldo Buono Ed Nicholas & Chris Griswold Chuck Nicholls & Mark Turner Coleman Prewitt

VISIONARY CLUB

Anonymous Darcy Beeman Ilene Berliner & Maura Lane John Bowles Mark Budwig & Nick Scalzo Michael Dager & Harvey Shapiro Chris Dunham & Joseph Dominguez

Forest Trace Gay Bridge Cal Harrison Tyler Healis Kenneth Hollander Charitable Foundation Robert L. Hubbard & Bill Greeves Robert Joshua David Kyner & Richard Bray Dr. Christopher Manhon W. Lynn McLaughlin & David Webb David Moon & Eugene Smith Michael Preihs & Khoi Loung Herb Reis & William Coffey SAGE Men’s Drop In Jeffrey & Belinda Shover Donald Schultz Calvin Steinmetz & Brian Boyle Stork’s Bakery Dave Stubbins The Bears of South Florida, Inc. Dean Trantalis, Esq Ted Verdone & John Curtin Charles Walker Sumner T. White

of what he was facing and what he needed to do, a look of shock spread across his face. His color drained away, leaving him ashen white. He realized that his entire life was altered. He had no clue as to what to do, where to go and felt totally lost and disconnected. Another client came to our CRCS office, wanting some help with his substance abuse. He was feeling his depression was taking him down a very dark path. He would find himself isolating from his friends. He drank by himself, and when he did go to bars he often put himself at risk. He would not remember what he did, often walking home from areas that were dangerous. He was robbed at one point. His work life was becoming affected as his performance was impaired. He no longer had a car, his finances were a disaster and it seemed like he was losing more and more. He stated he was ready to either give up or get help. Working with him over the course of the year, he was able to get himself sober. He has been sober for almost a year. He has stabilized his job, obtained a car and has managed to stay a month ahead in his financial

Toy Drive Launch Gelato Station hosted the launch party for the seventh annual Judy Shepherd Toy Drive sponsored by The Pride Center. Beautiful weather and tasty frozen treats set the scene for a successful donation day. Our very own Women with Pride collaborated with Women in Network and SAGE to collect 1000 toys through the drive this year to benefit children in our community. Photos by Lynn Glover

situation. Today, with adherence to the plans both men created with CRCS counseling, they have turned their lives from ones of desperation and alienation to ones of feeling empowered and connected. These are real people; they are the heroes and authors of their stories. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg of the many issues, problems and life events that we see in the Pride Center’s CRCS program. We help people problem-solve and consider different and better options as they navigate through struggles, trials and tribulations. We listen, stay attentive to details and guide those who feel lost, alone, alienated, confused and unaware. The satisfaction of helping someone with seemingly overwhelming issues is where we find our passion. This is why we are here. It makes what we do worth all the effort. It’s not always easy to improve someone’s story so the hero gets a better outcome. Often our task is murky and cloudy. However, like the lotus, people learn to adapt and grow in muddy waters.

VOICE Winter 2013

As Comprehensive Risk Counseling Services (CRCS) counselors at The Pride Center, we are often sought out to be the consultants to others’ stories. We listen and give advice and suggestions to help the “author.” Maybe he is stuck in his story, and his hero is suffering. Let us tell you about a few. He hadn’t had an HIV test for a few years. The last time he was tested was right before he was sexually assaulted. After that experience, he withdrew into himself, and never spoke to anyone about it. His test result came back positive for HIV antibodies. He knew all about safer sex. But in the back of his mind was that night when he was out of town on business and he hooked up with an online sexual encounter. It was a disaster. He was sexually assaulted. Since then, he gave up on himself. As we discussed the reality

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

Blooming in Muddy Waters

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org VOICE Winter 2013 6

Pride Center Testing: A Farewell to Clifford Downing By Listron “Blue” Mannix ount each day as a blessing, and the people you meet never take for granted. This is one of the many sayings that I carry with me each day. In April, a tall handsome man with a smile that lights up a room walked into my office. He announced that he recently relocated to Florida and wanted to volunteer as an HIV Tester and provide education classes. He sat in my office and shared his life with me. He painted pictures of war, love, heart break and--my favorite--the joys of traveling. Instantly, Clifford Downing made a deep impression on me, and I knew The Pride Center had to have him as an HIV Tester. In May, Clifford attended the Broward County Health Department four day training to become a certified HIV

Counselor in the state of Florida. After he completed this course, he returned to my office with more enthusiasm and joy. Within a week, Clifford had started taking clients on his own and volunteering two to three times a week in the testing office and off-site. In July, Pride Center Testing was awarded additional funding to provide HIV Testing and condom distribution in alternative or “creative” locations that cater to men who have sex with men (MSM). Clifford was one the first people I thought of, and we hired him to assist with our new High Impact Prevention Program. Clifford was always willing and ready to give a helping hand, to provide insight and wisdom. Better yet, he was a pleasant and positive person. You can understand my surprise when Clifford called me

recently to resign due to illness. Two weeks later, his partner called to inform me that Clifford had passed away. Now, I had seen Clifford on the Saturday before his passing. I could tell that Clifford wasn’t feeling well, but his voice and energy were still vibrant. I can recall his words “When I pass, I don’t want any tears, I want a party, people to be happy-dancing” and so we did. As we said our goodbyes on that cool afternoon and made plans to meet later that week, we didn’t know what would happen next… Rest in Peace, My Friend. Even though Clifford Downing only relocated to Wilton Manors a year ago, his experience as a nurse in infectious diseases as well as his personal charm and humor touched many in the area. He enjoyed volunteering at the Pride Center as an HIV Counselor. Clifford devoted his life to assisting others on personal, professional and humanitarian levels. Previously, Clifford and his husband of 18 years lived in CT, MD and DC where his achievements benefited numerous health, community development and

World AIDS Day Candlelight Vigil Thousands gathered for the annual candlelight vigil in Wilton Manors to honor World AIDS Day. Organized by Broward House, this year’s vigil culminated at The Pride Center at Equality Park.

research organizations. Earlier, Clifford traveled the world as a hdecorated ARMY nurse and as one of the first male stewards for Pan Am. He always lived life to the fullest, wherever he happened to be, and his friends enjoyed his personal and emotional attention greatly. He will be profoundly missed and fondly remembered. Clifford passed away on Nov. 5 at Miami’s Veteran’s hospital. His last wish was that our new political administration would finally, and equally, allow Federal veteran benefits to be extended to legally married same-sex partners.

DIAMOND LEVEL Alan Schubert Bob and Hal Bernier-Peterson Gil Corwin Arthur B. Smith, Atty Ilene Berliner, Board Chair and Maura Lane

PLATINUM LEVEL ($10,000 and above)

Anonymous (3) AIDS Healthcare Foundation Aqua Foundation for Women Bobby Blair / Florida Agenda Community Foundation of Broward Ed Garcia Designs LSeven Solutions Mona Pittenger Norm Kent / South Florida Gay News Peter Clark / Hotspots Magazine The Kenneth S. Hollander Charitable Foundation Wells Fargo Foundation Will Spencer / CAMP Inc. DIAMOND LEVEL ($5,000 -$9,999) Arthur Smith Chris Caputo, Board Member / MetroMedia Works D.C. Allen and Ken Flick David McLaren and Joseph Laurino / Periodic Products Dr. Dale Russell and Jan Carpenter Greg Hardy and Rick Soloway / Solutions Insurance Ilene Berliner, Board Vice-President, and Maura Lane Jim Stepp and Peter Zimmer Ted Schultz

GOLD LEVEL ($2,500 - $4,999)

SILVER LEVEL ($1,200 - $2,499)

Anonymous (4) Anthony Molluso and Bill Volbrecht AutoNation B Ocean Fort Lauderdale Bernie Langeluttig and Dennis Fitzkee Bill Linehan Bill Thornton and Adam Kratochwill / Pride

Ken Kalenderian Ken Keechl and Ted Adcock, Board Member Ken Moore and Hector Valdes Ken Merrifield and Fred Berger Kristopher Fegenbush Law Office of Cal Steinmetz Law Offices of Gregory W. Kabel, Esq. Leslie Tipton, Board Member / Church of the Holy SpiritSong Linda Wood and Dr. Kate Kominars Dr. Louis Benevento and Patrick Duffy Lynn Corning / Newman Insurance Lynn McLaughlin and David Webb Marc Grossman Maria Kondracki and Jim Dwyer Mark Gordon and Aldo Buono Mark Haines / Mark’s List Mark Halacy and Thomas Pollock Mark Ketcham and Werner Lutz Mark Turner and Chuck Nicholls Martin Gould Michael A. Albetta Michael Alexander Michael Camardello Michael Dager and Harvey Shapiro Michael D’Agostino Michael Faerber / D’Angelo Realty Group Michael Hisey Mick Howard and Brian Jackson / Mayors Jewelry Miriam Richter and Michelle Altman Mitch Bloom, Board Member, and Paul Wardell / Wells Fargo Bank Neill Hirst, MD and Greg Hughes Norman Berkowitz Northern Trust Bank Norton Lyman and Kimio Sato Pamela Kirkpatrick Patricia Nugent Patrick Harris and Wesley Walker Paul Alpert Paul Fasana Paul Hyman and Bill Bracker Paul Jennings Paul Rolli and W. Bennett Quade Peter Hardy-Smith and Steven Devito Peter Pileski and Bob Avian Pride Institute Fort Lauderdale Hospital Reginald Barnes Richard Nolan and Robert Pingpank Richard Stoll, Immediate Past President Robert Boo Robert Collier, M.D. and Charles Hunziker Robert Judd and Russell Neal Robert Kuhn and Steven Geyer Rosie’s Bar & Grill Salvatore Torre Sam Chalfant and Tom Rouland / Affordable Health Insurance Scott L. Bennett Stacy M. Lenehan Stephen Banigan and William Van Scoy Stephen Cox Stephen Schram and Richard Powers / PowersSchram Architects Steve Barnard Steve Shires Photography Steve Wetzler Sumner T. White Ted Emery Terry Stone and Mike Bush Timothy Hart Tim Singer and Richard Cascarelli Tom and Steven Begert-Clark Tony Seguino and Dan Ayers Tony Timiraos and Arthur Crispino Tyler Healis Victor Zepka and Jim Kolkana / Boardwalk Vince Di Pietro and Richard Berg Dr. Will Richardson / Natura Dermatology William Jordan and Andres Rodriguez

Join the Pride Center Founders Circle! Support the programs and services of The Pride Center. For more information, please contact Executive Director Robert Boo RBoo@PrideCenterFlorida.org

Exclusive VIP Tickets to meet Valerie Harper in “Looped” on sale today

VOICE Winter 2013

A Celebration of Friends Bayview Cadillac Bob Young Chris Dunham and Joseph Dominguez / Dunham Insurance Coffee and Conversation Diplomat Pharmacy Don Biehn Douglas Tinklepaugh and James Rickard / Pinnacle Constructors Gary Yamnitz / City County Credit Union Gerald Byers and Rudy Wengenroth Herb Reis and Dr William Coffey Dr. Howard R. Cunningham Joe Pallant and Danny Selvin / Pallant Insurance Lea P. Krauss, Esq., Board Member Lee Rubin and Jim Walker, Board Vice Chair Lloyd Gill Mark Budwig, Board Member, and Nick Scalzo / S. Mark Graphics Peninsula Assisted Living / Carlos Varela Perez Richard Safaty, Board Member / Freedom Travel Richard Schwarz and Tom Massey Robert Eldredge / RWE Real Estate Robert Hubbard and Bill Greeves Ronnie Pryor and Dustin Cranor / Source Salon Russell Sassanie, MD and Michael Schneider / Take Shape Plastic Surgery Tracey Cramer / Ameriprise Victor Flores / Fast Printz

Carpet Cleaning Bill Ward Bob Collier and Chuck Hunziker Brenda Hartley, Board Member / BankUnited Brian Farley and Ron Alose Bruce Lane Bruce Presley and Chris Hedlund Bruce Walther Bruno Trambusti and Randy Grant Cal Harrison Carol Moran Chantal Ingerson Charles Loring Charmaine Johnson-Leong, DDS, PA / Premier Smile Craig Benoit Craig Engel and Greg Briche Crown Wine and Spirits Dan Oropesa and DJ Harvey / Mack Multimedia Daniel Pye and Peter Mangone Daniel Wasinger and Howard Cohen Darcy Beeman and Jenn Bodner Dave Stubbins David Bebbington David King / Hospice of Broward County Dr. David Kyner and Richard Bray David Moon and Eugene Smith David O. McConnell David Treece / Treece Financial Dolphin Democratic Club Dominick Destefano Don Barlow Donn Rubin and Stephen Harmon / Alterra Home Loans Doug Candler Douglas Pew and Donald Croxton Drew Miller and Kevin Murdoch Ed Nicholas and Chris Griswold / Eastside Property Management Ellen Krider, CFP / RBC Wealth Management Eric Reivik and Andy Harrison / PC Lauderdale Erich Kissel Ernest Olivas / Nautilus Senior Home Care Erwin Mayer and Didier Moritz Fred Wahl and Fred Marzec Gables Wilton Park Apartments GalleryOne Fort Lauderdale Gary Kempler George Castrataro, Esq. Dr. George Kling / Board Member Geph Scarr / Scarr Insurance Glenn L. Goldberg Gregory Moore and Dr. Allan Barsky Hank Stembridge and Theron Watson Hans Hochkamp and Joseph DeBacco Harvey Chasser Howard Cohen and Daniel Wasinger iBeria Bank Irwin Drucker, Board Member Dr. J. Heider and Thomas Carr / Ultimate Smile Jack Johnson Jack Kosko and John Fitzgerald Jack Schlossberg and Greg Fineman James A. Johnson James Cox / Remora General Contractors James Jagielski Jan Zilmer Jared Falek and Don Chorpenning Jason King Jeffrey and Belinda Shover Jeffrey Gross Joe Guerrero Joe McConnell Joel Shulman, Esq. John Bolton John Jovanovich and Paul Holoweski John Leyden and Tom Valentine Julia Landis and Shawn Fanshier Justin Proffitt Karen Caron and Julie Slater / Chic Optique

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

The Pride Center Founders Circle

You are cordially invited to the VIP Opening Night Performance and Gala Reception of “LOOPED” - an Exclusive Fundraising Event to benefit The Pride Center. See Valerie Harper’s hilarious Tony Award Nominated Performance and then attend a VIP Reception hosted by Ms. Harper and other members of the cast and creative team at The Atlantic Hotel. Buy your tickets today and use code: GLCC227 BRING This Ad to the Parker Playhouse Box Office

CALL 954-462-0222 Use Code: GLCC227

VIP TICKETS $100 Includes Premium Seating & Admission to the Post-Performance Reception

To Benefit

VISIT ParkerPlayHouse.com Use Code: GLCC227

Wednesday, February 27, 2013 8PM Parker Playhouse

Over 300 people attended the Fifth Annual HotSpots Holiday Celebration. The glamorous evening at the Museum of Discovery and Science generously benefitted Broward House and The Pride Center. Photos by Steve Shires

VOICE Winter 2013

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

HotSpots Holiday Celebration

Transgender Day of Remembrance The Pride Center and Broward County Health Department organized and hosted Transgender Day of Remembrance. Over 100 people attended this well-received annual observance highlighting those weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve lost to hate crimes. Community collaborators included Women in Network and SunServe. Photos by Eddie Garcia

Photos by Pompano Bill and Kristofer Fegenbush

Photos by Eddie Garcia and Kristofer Fegenbush

VOICE Winter 2013

SMART Ride The Pride Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SMART Ride team raised over $71,000 for HIV/AIDS services in Florida. The SMART Ride itself raised over $860,000. Every cent raised by this 165 mile bike ride from Miami to Key West directly benefits vital HIV/AIDS services across Florida, including those at The Pride Center.

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

Red Hot Dance Party The Pride Center and SMART Ride collaborated on the first annual Red Hot Dance Party, a World AIDS Day benefit. Sponsors included The Village Pub, Live Free Be Strong and Casablanca Cafe. The event featured performances by Tiffany Arieagus and Nikki Adams and music by VJ Marcio Santos.

by Bishop S.F. Makalani-Mahee

had a conversation with a community leader I considered a friend who confided in me that she just “didn’t get the trans thing”. I was asked why couldn’t I just accept the body I was born in and accept my “reality”, and told that she was not supportive of trans rights. To say that I was shocked and hurt would be an understatement. What I realize through this kind of honest exchange is that not only do we not all get along--hell we don’t even understand each other. I have witnessed the leadership of the The Pride Center come under fire for daring to be inclusive, for leading community calls for diversity in the life of the Pride Center at Equality Park. Having been born into the world poor, black, female, and attracted to womyn, and now existing as a working class black transman, “otherness” is something I’ve felt all my life. I try to be aware of the pain and alienation of feeling “less than” in others. So I find it hard to comprehend when those who have been alienated, turn around and alienate others. I have been part of LGBT organizing for a while. One thing I know with certainty is that movements are framed just as much by allies who recognize injustice as they are by the oppressed who feel the sting of alienation. The bridge to equality is built by collaboration among

Pet Fair The Pride Center recently hosted its first Pet Fair and Flea Market. Highlights included an LGBT Pet Parade. Photos by Clarence Collins

Working toward Trans Inclusivity

the oppressed who identify their worth and the “majority. ” Shared equality doesn’t mean that someone goes lacking because there isn’t enough, but that there is more than enough to be sufficient for everyone. What would have happened to the history of human rights if leaders from the majority had not stepped outside their privilege and taken on the sting of others’ alienation? What would have come of the antislavery movement if white people like John Brown had not declared to a young black child on his way to be hung: “someday you’ll be free”? What would have come of the desegregation movement if white men like Andrew Goodman and Michael Henry Schwerner had not given their lives in solidarity with James Earl Chaney, affirming every Americans’ right to vote? Where would the fight for womyn’s right to vote be if male suffragists like Frederick Douglas had not affirmed that womyn should have certain unalienable rights? Where would the fight for LGBT marriage equality be if straight men like Mayor Gavin Newsome had not affirmed that there should be marriage equality for every loving couple? That community “leader” willing to throw transgender people under

the bus for political expediency doesn’t realize that the “straight” folk who cannot accept trans folk are probably the same folk who would not accept gay marriage. We will never gain true favor with those to whom we have to sell-out. The LGBTQQI community has the unique opportunity to model something very holy for our society at large. We can model a new paradigm shift that affirms the worth of every human being--their culture , their gender, and their age. When we let ourselves value everyone,

we build the bridge to unified community. We perceive strength instead of weakness and unity instead of separateness. The problem with privilege is not necessarily that it is not earned, but that it is expected by some and denied to others. The Pride Center at Equality Park is committed to building the bridges that makes it a safe, welcoming space for all. We invite you to join us as we launch new Trans Initiatives for 2013.

+ Dining at Dapur will benefit The Pride Center on January 16. Eat at Dapur that day and know that a portion of your meal will benefit the programs and services of The Pride Center. + We provided individualized internet based outreach on HIV prevention to over 1500 individuals over the past two months.

Photo by Kristofer Fegenbush

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org VOICE Winter 2013

Building Bridges

Did you know? + Our PALS Project’s CHOICES program provides a lifeenhancing five week workshop for men living with HIV. Enhance your relationships, disclose wisely and improve decision making. Call 954.463.9011 to learn more!

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

Founders Reception at GalleryOne GalleryOne hosted and sponsored a recent Founders Reception under the stars and along the waterfront. Funds donated by Founders Circle underwrite life-enhancing programs and services to the community. Photos by Steve Shires

Profile: Daniel Dardenne Occupation: Senior HIV Testing Counselor/Specialist Born: Belgium in 7/3/1942 Hobbies and Interests: Volunteering, Swimming, Opera, Foreign Movies and Listening to Music

aniel is 70 years old and has been fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic since 2000. He has been living with HIV for the last 28 years. Daniel has worked at The Pride Center for the last seven years. “Thirteen years ago, I was taking the worst combination of medication for Neuropathy and had difficulty walking and ended up on disability,” says Daniel. “Through a friend I found out about a study with the first 25mg pill. I was finally relieved of the constant burning, but not cured and was not able to resume my work in restaurants as a Maitre d’. Being stuck at home every night made me edgy and my new boyfriend at the

time told me to get my butt off the chair and do something with my life. Since I had no other experience he suggested that I volunteer where I was receiving massages. That was the beginning of my new journey. After working at The Wansiki Foundation and Care Resource for four years, I was known in the community to be a very hard worker and caught the attention of Paul Hyman who became the Executive Director of the then GLCC. He offered me a position that I immediately accepted and never regretted.” “Being an HIV Testing Counselor, I meet a lot of people of all backgrounds,” says Daniel. “It is a constant learning experience which I love. Of course, there is always the difficult part to tell someone who has tested positive. But I know how it feels. When I was diagnosed, I was told I had 2 or 3 years to live. Being a Testing Counselor I believe I am able to comfort and reassure people that HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence. It is the reason

Photo by Blue Mannix

By Listron “Blue” Mannix

“All these years I have listened to some difficult and sad stories, but I have accumulated a lot of knowledge,” says Daniel. “It has made me stronger and more understanding. I know I am a better person because of the people with whom I have come into contact. It is very different from standing in the restaurant where I worked 17 years serving people like President Nixon. The Pride Center is my family now and I am proud to be part of it. In my last Lab results my T4 count is the highest since 1999. I can only come to one conclusion: my work keeps me healthy.”

VOICE Winter 2013

Spotlight: Getting to Know An HIV Testing Counselor

I often share my status when I interact with people.” “Living with HIV 24/7, 365 days a year has had its challenge, but it is not impossible,” says Daniel. “I cannot name all the wonderful people who have helped me along the way, providing me with support and even knowledge. I will be forever grateful to them for the rest of my life. My work has kept me alive and I am in the company of talented and dedicated coworkers.” “ I also test for the Center at LifeNet 4 Families where homeless people can get a meal, a shower, get their mail, and even a haircut,” says Daniel. “I work closely with social workers who help people get assistance. It can be a challenging place to work--to encourage clients to get tested, explain the risks and advise how to approach their partners about safety. But I was determined to provide effective services and now am well connected with the patrons.” “I also recently started testing at The Club Fort Lauderdale, which is new for me,” says Daniel. “It has been disappointing to see so many people still taking risk. I am excited when people are willing to get tested. I even get a few guys who just want to ask questions about HIV/AIDS, STI’s and safer sex practices.”

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

LBT Health Directory Launch Over 75 people attended the launch of the new LBT Women’s Health Directory at www.LBTHealth.org , an initiative funded by Aqua Foundation for Women. The Pride Center’s collaborators included Women in Network, SunServe and BLAST. Sponsors for the evening included The Courtyard Cafe, New Moon Bar and Pandora Events. Photos by Kristofer Fegenbush

“LIFE meant life to me” HIV program graduates share impact on their lives

he LIFE Program is an 18 week holistic health and risk reduction workshop of the Pride Center’s PALS Project. Recent graduates share their testimonials. To learn more about the PALS Project and its various programs--LIFE, CHOICES, CouplesSpeak, BUDDIES and more--contact 954.463.9011.

TJ Gonzalez

VOICE Winter 2013

The LIFE workshop allowed me to release a lot of the baggage that I was carrying around and lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. It also helped me to realize the struggles I was going through I was not going through alone. I met some really great men that will be my friends for a lifetime. I also want to thank my small group facilitators (Jeff G and Jeff W) for allowing us to express ourselves openly and for being a great support system. Thank you and I love you guys!!!

Kaiser Soomro

LIFE meant life to me. I knew what I wanted to get from the LIFE Program and I was successful in achieving that. Bits and pieces of knowledge and information that I needed to implement in my daily life. I feel like a grown up adult finally. I needed this regardless of my HIV status. I would recommend something like the LIFE Program to all gay men. Just being gay is sufficient to have psychological, social, and other distracting issues that may cause us to lose the right track in life. The LIFE Program provided me all the tools to deal with these issues. I consider LIFE my gay family that accepts me and nurtures my personality. Thanks to all the volunteers and staff. Couldn’t be possible without all of you.

John Vocell

My LIFE Program experience was so much more than I had anticipated. From the first night jitters until the end of my cycle, I always felt welcome and a sense that what I said mattered. Being a long term, older HIV positive individual, I lived out of tune with what was happening in the HIV community. So from the get go I was experiencing lots of important information that would be a factor in my life from that moment on. Not only were my eyes opened socially and emotionally, but I also experienced the importance of taking control of my life medically and physically. For me this was a life changing experience. I had never been more awakened to all of the inter-related factors that enabled me to make better decisions. The interaction and input received from the facilitators was amazing. Their knowledge and experiences shared with me led me to always feel comfortable in conversing or asking for advice from them. I am a better person for having been a part of this amazing program and feel blessed that it was available for me at this time in my life. My thanks to all of the Pride Center staff that presented this program for 18 weeks. It was certainly an act of Love on their part.

They do this through grants, scholarships and other initiatives for women. They focus funding on innovative awareness and training programs, especially those that have a grassroots or community outreach component and projects that use innovative techniques or use collaborative methods to benefit the South Florida LBT population. Robin Schwartz, Director of the Aqua Foundation, said at the recent LBThealth. org website launch party at the Pride Center, “It is worth all the money in the world… It is about saving women’s lives and making the lives that we have better. And actually, that is what Aqua is about; really pulling the community together.” The Pride Center has a fully-equipped central office where local L es b i a n , Bisexual, and T ra n s ge n d e r w o m e n can receive information,

referrals, support, and much more. There is a Monday Night Women’s Group that meets every Monday from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the front building, room 206 ($4 donation). For additional information about women’s programs at the Pride Center, please visit www. pridecenterflorida.org or please contact Donna Woessner by email at DWoessner@ PrideCenterFlorida.org Dave Griffiths is the Publisher and Creative Director for HIM-magazine.com, a website dedicated to helping the gay community showcase their talents and overcome their challenges. HIM Magazine is “For the Man Who Invests In Himself!” Photo by Kristofer Fegenbush

disabilities with a Portrait Component and Fashion Show) and “The Truth about Cats and Dogs” (exploring gender identity differences and stereotypes among lesbian women, gay men, bisexual and transgender community members). The series—and Donna’s work coordinating women’s resources—will continue to enhance the different options and opportunities for women to grow and learn about themselves and their community through The Pride Center. “Through this series, we will help provide LBTQ women with the information, support and resources they deserve,” says Kristofer Fegenbush, Deputy Director. “We will build community awareness and understanding among those of differing sexual orientation and gender identities. We will increase the health of LBTQ women. We will create more resources on education, funding and social connections for LBT women who have children or are planning on starting a family. We will help reduce LBT domestic violence and increase safety.” It is the mission of the Aqua Foundation for Women to serve as the funding catalyst for lesbian, bisexual, and transgender wellness and equality in South Florida.

VOICE Winter 2013

By Dave Griffiths oming soon to The Pride Center: “Hoo-hoos, Coochies and Treasure Chests: Smiling Vagina Night,” a workshop on vaginal health. Over the past year, the Pride Center and its Women with Pride Coordinator, Donna Woessner, have been working towards expanding the Pride Center women’s services, resources and programming. In 2013, a new $10,000 grant from Aqua Foundation for Women will expand the variety, frequency and impact of events and workshops. The Pride Center, in full collaboration with Women in Network (WIN), will launch an innovative Women with Pride Empowerment Series. The series will offer thirteen unique, fun and educational events in this community outreach, awareness, education and training initiative. “We’re going to engage women to openly discuss topics normally shared whispering to our closest friends only,” says Donna. “We will explore subjects where all women will find relevance.” Other topics in the series include: “Loving Your Body” (a body image seminar for all shapes, sizes and physical

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

Great News for Women!

New 10K Grant from Aqua Foundation will help expand Center services for LBT Women

Senior Services Expand Exponentially

By Bruce Williams, Pride Center Senior Advisory Committee Chair

s we launch 2013, the Senior Advisory Council at The Pride Center seems to be wrapping up one year and bursting into the next. Our recent Thanksgiving Pot Luck Dinner was enjoyed by a record number of nearly 200 people. Thanks to a lot of hard work by Council Members, The Pride Center employees, volunteers, community businesses, area agencies and our energetic attendees, our group of LGBT Seniors has grown from a dozen chairs gathered around a six-foot table to a crowd that filled every seat in a large meeting hall. The camaraderie, hard work, donations and monies raised this year alone by Seniors at The Pride Center have enabled us to: •Purchase two life-saving Automatic External Defibrillators for use at The Pride Center •Enlighten the community through programs such as: a Senior Gay Men’s Support Group; Colo-Rectal Seminars by Dr. Elie Schochet; Cancer Support and Services at Gilda’s Club by Shelley Goren; Veteran’s Benefits and Services by Owen Walker; Understanding Medicare by Gary Kempler; Fraud Prevention for Seniors by Leo Scarpati; Management of Diabetes by Broward Health; The Dangers of Prescription Drugs by The

Broward Sheriff’s Department; Betty Rosse’s Motivational Series; The alwaysinspiring......Naomi Parker; and Hospice Services by David King •Provide YMCA Enhance Fitness Exercise Classes that are utilized by over 70 Seniors three times weekly •Entertain our community with: a weekly “Coffee & Conversation” that draws nearly 100 people; bi-weekly Games Days; movies with Michael Childers of PALS; presentations by The Broward Center for the Performing Arts; theatrical performances by Seniors Acting Up; Pot Luck Dinners; a Silent Auction; and Bingo with Clarence •Sponsor and organize our Third Annual Senior Health Expo that boasted nearly 50 vendors and was attended by over 300 members of our community. •Purchase and donate several dozen chairs for use by The Pals Project, AA, the exercise classes and numerous other groups that meet in Building “B” at The Center •Offer AARP Drivers Classes at minimal cost to all members of the community and at no charge for area Veterans •Donate a significant amount of funds in support of The Pride Center’s Smart Ride Team; •Generously contribute to both the Judy

Shepard “Stuff The Bus” Campaign and The Holiday Toy Drive •Gather information and statistics to better serve the needs of the LGBT Community by participation in The Pride Center’s Face2Face Series, surveys conducted by the University of Miami’s Center On Aging, partnering in the presentation of SunServe Programming, and assisting with Florida Atlantic University projects. None of the above would have been possible without a cohesive effort from such groups as SAGE, The PrimeTimers,

Women in Network and the Center’s PALS Project. This work was bolstered by Center leadership Robert Boo and Kristofer Fegenbush, who are unrelenting in their support of senior activities and quick to acknowledge the value of our presence at The Pride Center. Sooooo...... with The Pride Center as our arena and a great group of individuals to put on the show, we can proudly close the curtain on a very successful 2012. But stick around, because next year is lucky ‘13!

Photo by Steve Shires

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org VOICE Winter 2013

Record-Breaking Year

Groups at the Pride Center WEEKLY RECURRING MEETINGS

AA – Attitude Adjustment Group, Recovery, Mon-Fri, 7-8a AA – Candlelight Meditation Group, Recovery, Tues, 8:30-9:30p AA – Each Day a New Beginning, Recovery, Daily, 9-10a AA – Northeast Group, Recovery, Mon, 8:30-9:30p AA – Sober, Proud and Gay, Recovery, Fri, 8:30-10p AA – Pride 5:45 Meeting, Recovery, Daily, 5:45-6:45p BrothasspeakFTL-Social, Wed, 7:00p-9:00p Coffee and Conversation – SAC, Social/Seniors, Tues, 10:30a12noon Double Winners, Support, Wed, 5:45-6:45p Games Day, Social, 2nd & 4th Tues, 1-4p Gay Bridge Club, Fun, Mon & Fri, 1-4p Gay Hearts, Social, Sun, 1-3:30p Mahjong, Social, Wed, 1-5:00p Man2Man Talk, Social, Mon, 7-8:30p Monday Night Women’s Group, Social, Mon, 7:30-9p Narcotics Anonymous Rainbow Group, Recovery, Wed, 8-9p New Path Narcotics Anonymous Group, Recovery, Mon/Tue/Thu, 7-8p New Path Narcotics Anonymous Group, Recovery, Sat/Sun, 4-5p Overeaters Anonymous, Recovery, Sun, 12n-1:30p

Overeaters Anonymous, Recovery, Fri, 7:30-9p POZ Attitudes Here and Now, HIV Support, Wed, 7-9p, Positive Connections, HIV Support, Tue, 6:30-8:00p SAGE Men’s Social, Social/Seniors, Wed, 1-3p Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA), Recovery, Fri, 7-8p Senior Exercise Class Health, Senior, Mon/Wed/Fri, 10:15-11:15a Senior Exercise Class Health, Senior, Mon/Wed/Fri, 11:15a-12:15p Senior Gay Men’s Support Group, Support, Mon, 11a-12n Smart Recovery, Recovery, Mon, 7:30-8:30p/Thur, 6:30-8p Toastmasters, Educational, Mon, 7:15-9:15p Women’s Non-Competitive Basketball, Social,Wed/Thur,5:45p Sat, 3-5p Pride Center Young Adult Group, (23-35 yoa), Support, Thur, 8:309:45p

BI-WEEKLY RECURRING MEETINGS

Ballet & Opera Group, Educational, 2nd & 4th Sunday, 1-4p Bereavement Group, Support, 2nd & 4th Sunday, 2-4p Broward Anti War Coalition, Support, 1st & 3rd Wed, 7:30-9:30p POZ Long-Term Survivor, Gay Men/HIV Support, 1st & 3rd Thur, 6:30-8p Senior Games Day, Social, 2nd & 4th Tue, 1-4p

MONTHLY RECURRING MEETINGS/EVENTS

Big Men’s Club: Chubbies & Chasers, Social, 3rd Sat, 1-4p Pride Center BINGO, Open to Public, 2nd Sat, 7-10p Dolphin Democrats, Mthly Meeting, 2nd Wed, 7:30-9:30p Lavender Speaks, Social, 3rd Thurs, 7:30-10p Pride Center Memorial Garden Club, Educational, 3rd Wed, 7-9p Pride Center GLEE Club,Social, Bi-Monthly Pride Center Flea Market, Open to Public, 1st Sat, 8a-2p Primetimers, Open to Public, 1st Sun, 2-4:30p SAGE Computer Club, Educational, 2nd Wed, 4-6p SAGE Movie Movie, Social, 3rd Mon, 4-6p S. F. Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf, Support, 1st Sun, 2:30-3:30p Transgender Support Group, Support, 3rd Fri, 7-8:30p TransCaringBrothers,Support, Women in Network, Social, 1st Wed, 7-9p

For further information call Samantha McCoy at 954-463-9005. Visit www.pridecenterflorida.org Calendar of Events for meeting room assignments.

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

Directory These businesses represent some of our valuable supporters. To become a Business Founder, please contact Robert Boo: RBoo@PrideCenterFlorida.org 954.463.9005.

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11/29/2011 9:42:55 AM

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As 2013 starts with new promises, this is a time for us to take a breath, reflect on the past year and look ahead to new opportunities. We will celebrate our 20th anniversary in 2013. This really is quite an achievement! There are those that said

VOICE Winter 2013 16

we wouldn’t last or make it thru difficult times many years ago. There are those that said we couldn’t possibly purchase a 5+ acre campus and make it work. But here we are. Many years later, many lessons learned, many errors made along the way but with the help of many people, we have created a vibrant and valued Center for the community. There are many smaller LGBT Centers across the county that look to us and dream of achieving our success, just like I look at the Centers in Chicago, New York and L.A. and dream of one day matching theirs. For the past 19 years, the Center has provided a warm, welcoming and safe space for the LGBTQ community and our supporters. We have accomplished so much in serving the changing needs of those we serve, but we must do more. In 2012, we expanded and enhanced our

services in exciting ways to enrich lives. We provided HIV counseling and testing in more locations to more people than ever before. We launched a variety of new programs and workshops--from financial planning to trans support; from social media outreach to suicide prevention. We spearheaded the creation of an online, searchable tri-county LBT Women’s Health Directory of culturally competent providers. Our PALS Project continued to find new ways to provide needed support, education, training and service linkage to people living with HIV/AIDS. We hosted youth dances, LGBT family days, health fairs and a variety of new support, social and educational groups. This year, we directly served nearly 20,000 people. One new program, CouplesSpeak, is a four-week workshop promoting holistic health, improved communication, relationship-building and risk reduction for couples, including sero-discordant couples. This innovative approach aims to lower HIV conversion rates within couples. This cutting edge program is like nothing else in the nation. Our seniors programming continues to grow. Under our Senior Advisory Council’s leadership, we have expanded weekly events and experienced greater, more diversified participation. We have enhanced the educational speakers’ series, increased senior exercise class offerings, added drop-in social support programs and offered new avenues for vital health linkage at weekly gettogethers. Our annual LGBT Senior Health Expo was bigger and better than ever. We launched Women With Pride to increase the empowerment, comfort, connection and safety of LBT women locally. The LBT community benefits from vital social and emotional support in a safe, welcoming space. We are providing increased access to creative, affirming, enjoyable educational and social events. Expanding our ongoing Face 2 Face: Relevant Q-munity Conversations, we offered a new “Growing My Family”

SMART Ride Spaghetti Dinner The Pride Center hosted a pasta dinner for local riders, teams, crew and volunteers as a thank you before The SMART Ride. Sponsors included CDTC, Stork’s Cafe and Lyons, Snyder and Collin. Attendees heard from staff and clients of CDTC and The Pride Center about the impact of their life-saving HIV programs. Photos by Toby Blades Harmer

Photo by Dennis Dean

by Robert Boo, Executive Director

Photo by Dennis Dean

www.PrideCenterFlorida.org

Why You Should Feel Good Supporting The Pride Center

series. Finally, after years of work, it now is legal for LGBT families to adopt in Florida. Our workshops help link people to resources, mechanics and information on foster care, adoption, surrogacy and alternative insemination/IVF. Our program supports those new to parenting and guides those who wish to welcome a child into their home. Looking ahead to our future growth we continue to work on the master plan for Equality Park. We have assembled some very talented people who have dedicated their time and skills to strategically plan the future development of the campus. We are working with the County and City planners on all of the options available to us. Over the years we have continually been asked to provide cultural and educational opportunities to the community. People want a place where we can come together for rallies, Arts & Entertainment, Celebrations of Life and Commitment Ceremonies. It really is quite exciting to see the potential for our future growth. Of course the funding and revenue streams will need to be established to achieve our goals but the vision is being created. As our community grows, so too, do the needs of those who seek and use our help. Please consider providing an extra gift to the Center to help us meet our goals. Whether you send $20…$50…$100 or more, please know that someone in our family will be helped thanks to you. If not you…then who will help? Please send your gift--large or small--today. My best wishes to you and your loved ones for a very happy, healthy New Year.

Did you know? + The annual GLBT Travel Expo will be at The Pride Center again on February 7, 2012. Last year’s event brought over 200 attendees.

Guest Column

What is in a Name?

The story of one transgender person’s name change By Diana O’Brien

oday I am celebrating a personal achievement and milestone! There are dinner plans and maybe a cocktail waiting for me in a couple hours. Certainly there will be good company – a fellow traveler who rode the train I’m now on, but who took her journey years before me. I am celebrating the affirmation of my identity.

I took my identity for granted. It was assigned to me at birth. “Congratulations, it’s a boy! What is his name?” the obstetrician asked. The nurse wrote it on the birth certificate. Name: Michael Shane O’Brien. Sex: Male. That’s all there was to it. The recovery room was filled with the sweet smell of roses. My name was chosen for me with love, by a young mother that used to read Michael Shayne Detective stories when she was just a girl. My sex was assigned to me based on – well, you get the picture. The truth was, however, mom was not the only girl in the room that day. That was not all there was to it. When I finally came to understand for myself that my birth assigned name and sex did not match my gender

identity, I chose a new name. Diana. It was the alter-ego name of Linda Carter’s Wonder Woman, the visage of feminine beauty and strength that I had adored since childhood. The name felt right, sounded right on my own lips, and on the lips of others. Eventually I decided I wanted to make it legal. Having the wrong name and gender marker can be much more than a hassle. It is a source

of constant inner pain. It causes problems with every government agency you have to deal with. It makes your most personal information a necessary subject to talk about with every business that you patronize or seek employment from. It is a barrier to receiving healthcare in many instances. It can even be dangerous. Correcting this is one of the great accomplishments of many transgender people’s lives. As it turns out, there are all kinds hoops to jump through to have one’s name changed and sex reassigned (which are two different things with two different processes). Hours of research go into understanding the legal processes and clinical requirements; then there are the many doctor visits, the

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

paperwork, the fees, the court hearing, and so much more. The light at the end of the tunnel is dim and far away at first, but gets brighter and closer with each step accomplished. Recently, I sat solemnly, listening to the names of other transgender women and men. They were read aloud and publicly, in memory of the lives that were violently taken from us this year. Two hundred sixty five transgender people’s murders were reported in the twelve months prior to the International Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20. Each year it breaks my heart, but being right in the middle of the process of owning my real identity made it so much more poignant. So many people pay a much higher price to be their authentic self than I have. It is a human right to do so. It is also a privilege to live in a country where it is possible, though only with great effort, resolve and patience. As I approach the end of the tunnel (but far from the end of the trip), I am mindful of how so few are able to complete the trip or even get on the train. So what then is in a name, as William Shakespeare asked? My life wouldn’t smell as sweet if I could not be Diana. I’ve changed my name to one that speaks to who I really am – beautiful and strong like my heroine. I’ve changed my sex to the one that speaks to what I really am – a woman as real as any birth-assigned female. In spite of all the resistance, all the difficulty, all the expense, and all the manure that’s been thrown on this bed of roses, life has never been sweeter.

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National Tragedy Stirs In the Wake of Tragedy

his was going to be a very different column. Then 20 children died in Connecticut. A gunman opened fire in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday, leaving 20 children and 7 adults (including the shooter) dead. As the mother of an elementary school student, school shootings were already one of my nightmares. Having grown up and gone to school in Connecticut myself, though— and now having a son in elementary school just one state over, the nightmare seems more real than ever. I cannot imagine what it is like for the parents, families, and friends of the victims. My heart goes out to them. It is hard to find words in the wake of such a tragedy. Words will not suffice to convey the horror, or to comfort the surviving families and friends. But we can use words to help us take action, and to find in that action some sense that the deaths have at least helped move our society towards a place where such tragedies never happen again. There have been 31 school shootings since the one in Columbine, Colorado in 1999, according to ABC News. One was too many. Thirty-one is unconscionable. Many are seeing the shooting as one more reason to call for more stringent gun control laws. I would agree. They are long overdue. But gun control is only part of the solution. I believe mental health care and education are the other two main components of what has to be a multi-pronged approach to the problem. Anyone who commits such a senseless act as did the gunman has clear mental health issues. Mental health remains a littleunderstood and still-stigmatized area of an already shaky health care system. We need to do more to help people identify when they or others need mental health assistance, to de-stigmatize getting such assistance, and to provide the financial resources so those who need it get appropriate care. We must also educate our children—

By Dana Rudolph future adults—to respect each other and to handle anger, frustration, and loss in ways that don’t involve lashing out at others. We have made great strides in recent years in addressing bullying and violence, but we need to do even more to show children how to respect themselves and others and to solve problems in constructive, not destructive, ways. Yes, we need to teach our children to read, write, and do arithmetic, but we also need to make sure they have social and emotional skills for life. These are not “luxury” subjects. They are not dealt with solely in a once-a-year anti-bullying or anti-violence workshop or posters on the wall. They are critical learnings that should be woven into the fabric of school life, whether it be in working together over a science project, learning about different perspectives through a book during a language class, or learning to share at recess. Schools cannot alone obviate mental health issues, but they can create supportive environments to encourage emotional well-being. Education begins at home, however, and we as parents must set good examples of respect and non-violent problem solving. We must monitor the media our children consume, and talk with them when they encounter images of violence that could cause them concern or misunderstanding. We must also not be afraid to seek help when our own or our children’s emotional needs require it. Out of tragedy often come heroes. I think today of Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime, and who has dedicated her life to “Replace Hate with Understanding, Compassion, and Acceptance” through a foundation in his honor. I wonder sometimes if I could be that brave and selfless in the face of personal tragedy. I hope I never have to find out. We cannot, however, leave it to those who were directly affected by a tragedy to take action on our behalf.

It is up to all of us, as parents and people, to make sure tragedies like this never happen again. We cannot each do everything, though. We must each pick an aspect or aspects of the problem that we feel most strongly about, or where we feel we can have the most impact—gun control, mental health, education—and do what we can, as often as we can, in our homes, schools, communities, and nation. As a society, we give much lip service to doing things “in the best interests of the children.” But if we as a society do not do what it takes to protect children’s lives, even

in areas like gun control and mental health that aren’t traditionally associated with “children’s issues,” then we have failed, and our society is the poorer for it. In fact, if we don’t protect our children, we have no future as a society. Hug your kids. Then go work for their future. Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian (www.mombian.com), an award-winning blog and resource directory for LGBT parents. She speaks here for herself, not her employer.

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Emotions In Us All There Are No Words…

ometimes it feels as if there is just nothing to say. Trying to come up with words that will appropriately address the situation feels useless. Silence feels like the only meaningful communication. Youngsters die in a barrage of bullets. Their Christmas or Hanukkah presents are hidden under their parents’ bed. Even those of us without children of our own are sick to our stomachs. My mother buried three of her seven children, two of them toddlers. She said there was nothing worse. We knew we were not supposed to talk about it. When one mother’s child died, she wrote: “Please don’t tell me you know how I feel, unless you have lost your child too. Please don’t tell me my broken heart will heal, because that is just not true. Please don’t tell me my son is in a better place. Although that is true, I want him here with me. Don’t tell me someday I’ll hear his voice, or see his face. Beyond today I cannot see.” My older sister, Kathy, taught first grade for many years, as has her daughter, Amy. I thought of them immediately when I heard of the massacre of the children. I wrote, “Everyone in the world is heartsick about the tragic, senseless death of the little children in Connecticut, but you two dear souls, and every other person who has devoted his or her life to teaching youngsters, must be in a very painful place the rest of us can never know. You are in my thoughts.” Kathy replied, “Oh, I thank you so much for your message. I have not stopped crying, and am still doing the same…That little message made a big difference with my emotions, and I thank you. I so wish I could do something.” The day twenty children were shot to death in Connecticut, and twenty-two children were injured by a man wielding a knife outside a grade school in China, I met at the Stonewall National Museum with a potential donor to our program to stop

By Brian McNaught bullying in schools by creating curriculum on LGBT history and culture. A handful of very dedicated souls talked with him for two hours, but we walked away feeling we would get very little financial support. That night, I went to post a picture of the group on my Facebook page, and couldn’t do it. It felt disrespectful to say anything about any topic other than the death of the children in Connecticut. This column is generally about LGBT issues. But, sometimes you have to stop what you normally do and participate in the pain of others. Speculating whether any of the children were gay or transgender is inappropriate and irrelevant. Every heart and every mind, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, disability, age, nationality, or political affiliation spent moments in stunned silence because the death of children, the youngest and most innocent of our human race, trumps all thoughts of social agendas. Silence can be personally comforting, and sometimes the most appropriate response. But, I think that it’s important to say something, even when it feels useless and scary, to those who feel that no one understands or cares. Despite the tendency toward silence in my house, I used to talk with my mom about my deceased siblings, and I just did it with my sister and niece. Sometimes, the most respectful thing we can do is to shut up about the things that aren’t related to the tragedy, and to share with others, as they are able to hear, that we feel the need to say something, but we don’t know what. The well-known, 1932 poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye has helped me start to heal my sorrow over the soul-scarring brutality in Connecticut. It reflects how I feel about death, and where I think I might experience those children I never knew.

Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there. I do not sleep.

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the snow on the mountain’s rim, I am the laughter in children’s eyes, I am the sand at the water’s edge, I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle Autumn rain, When you awaken in the morning’s hush, I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight, I am the star that shines at night, Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims of an incomprehensible tragedy

Brian McNaught was named “the godfather of gay diversity training” by The New York Times. He works with corporate executives globally, is the author of six books, and is featured in seven educational DVDs. He and his spouse Ray Struble divide their year between Ft. Lauderdale and Provincetown. Visit Brian-McNaught.com for more information.

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McNaught’s Notes

Cheery or Dreary: Happy Holidays here are people I know who hate this time of year. They actually become so depressed that they approach a state of dysfunction. The holidays bring up feelings of loneliness, disappointment, and even irritation. Some people have childhood memories of accelerated drinking and subsequent abuse. Or they recall watching other children enjoy the magic of Christmas while they and their family suffered the pain of poverty at intensified levels. My childhood Christmases weren’t storybook perfect. There was too much drinking. But I was lucky enough to live in a family that could afford to celebrate Christmas at the same level as portrayed in most holiday movies. We weren’t the poor but devoted Cratchit family of Charles Dickens book, A Christmas Carol. We were more like Scrooge’s nephew Fred, but with no parlor games about “The Minister’s Cat.” (We did, however, sing around the piano.) Ray’s strongest Christmas memory is going with his father, and his brothers to pick out the Christmas tree. The scene in the beloved film A Christmas Story, in which Ralphie, Randy, and their folks bargain with the Christmas tree salesman, feels very familiar to Ray. But he also remembers feeling frightened that there would be too much drinking, and that good moods would change to bad. I actually love Christmas, and my enthusiasm sweeps Ray up in the tide of glee. He’d love to have a film of me decorating the house. My goal is to have someone walk in and feel as if he or she was in a snowy, whimsical, childlike space in which candy and cookies are within reach at all times, and lights, candles, and tokens of their past make them feel safe and spoiled. “I do believe. I do believe in Santa Claus.” Mind you, all of this is taking place in sunny Florida. It makes me sad that there are people for whom the holidays are a horror. With one such friend, Ray and I tried to gently reconstruct his expectations of the season so that it was anticipated as a time of fun rather than of dread. But we found that when we were separated from him, the old childhood memories of fear, poverty, or loneliness returned with a vengeance.

If Ray wasn’t in my life, lovingly willing to help put up the tree, and take down the decorations, I’m certain my enjoyment of the holidays would be very different. Creating traditions with him, such as always having turkey soup on the night we decorate the tree, gives me a sense of belonging and security. Unwrapping and placing the decorations throughout the first floor of the house prompts us to recall when and where the ornament or the elf was purchased. Every item has a happy story. The handmade stockings that bear our names and hang from the mantel were knitted by an elderly Polish woman thirtyfive years ago. When we die, as she has, they’ll be tossed by whoever cleans out our house, but each time we hang them we remember entering the country store in Concord, Massachusetts, meeting her, and buying penny candy for our nieces and nephews. I like how I feel at this time of year, but I choose to feel the way I do. I like how most other people choose to feel too. It makes me happy to give away money and food to people who need it, and to create joy for people in my circle of friends and beyond. I love that cars stop in front of our home to look at the decorated wreaths and illuminated driveway. It is comforting to know that for a short period of time, we can forget elections, budget battles, and war in the Middle East. There’s a scene in one film version of A Christmas Carol in which the Ghost of Christmas Present makes Scrooge drink from the cup of human kindness. Doing so makes Scrooge feel warm and wonderful all over. His cranky mood evaporates, and he proclaims that he’s never felt so good in his life. Scrooge hated Christmas because of childhood abuse, too. The season represented to him disappointment and loneliness. But once he tasted human kindness, he plunged into the spirit of Christmas giving and celebrating. I suppose that’s what all of the decorating we do is about. We, and all others who light a candle in their kitchen window, or hang a plastic wreath on their front door, are saying, “We believe, and we want to participate in human kindness. We hope you all can feel what we feel.” www.brian-mcnaught.com Photo courtesy of mararie

By Brian McNaught

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Off The Wall

The War on Christmas

he term “Christmas controversy” refers to the issue surrounding the celebration or acknowledgment of the Christmas holiday in government, media, advertising, and various secular environments. In the past, Christmas-related controversy was mainly restricted to concerns of a public focus on secular Christmas themes such as Santa Claus and gift-giving, rather than what is sometimes expressed by Christians as the real “reason for the season” — the birth of Jesus. The term “Xmas,” a popular shortened form of the word “Christmas” originates from the use of the Greek letter chi to represent “Christ” (Xristos), has been a particular topic of controversy among Christians unfamiliar with the historical roots of the term. The expression War on Christmas is often been used to denote Christmasrelated controversy in the media. The term gained notability thanks in part to its use by conservative commentators such as Peter Brimelow and Bill O’Reilly beginning in the early 2000s. Bill O’Reilly, and some other prominent media figures and personalities, claim that any specific mention of the term “Christmas” or its religious aspects is being increasingly censored, avoided, or discouraged by a number of advertisers, retailers, government (prominently schools), and other public and secular organizations. Fox Network has jumped on the bandwagon. People are tired of Benghazi, of General Petraeus and his search for Pussy Galore. And since the word journalism is an oxymoron at Fox they are now dedicating hours to the “War on Christmas.” Nobody however debates on how those who do not

By Pier Angelo share the same belief in Xmas feel when they are bombarded for over a month by trees, nativity scenes, carols, and lights. Nobody points out that Xmas can be arrogant, pushy and often downright annoying. We live, after all, in an increasingly multicultural sensitive, religiously diversifying society. Something that Pat Robertson has not yet grasped, in fact, he has hit out at those “miserable” atheists while Fox News has gone after Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee for calling the Xmas tree: The Holiday Tree. To showcase how Christmas can be invasive and pervasive, I want to share the following story, courtesy of a friend of mine. It is the transcript of a conversation she has had with her mother:

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

My Xmas took a funny turn yesterday. My mother found out we were not going to Italy so she insisted we go to her for lunch. The Polish girl that lives-in with her has apparently bought a Christmas tree and decorated it. I informed my mother that I didn’t get out of my obligations with Italian in-laws only to take on new ones. Mom’s response “you have to come, it is tradition, we are going to have a typical Polish Christmas lunch.” My response “Mom! We are Jews!, I am not taking on any more ‘traditions’ I have enough of my own.” My mother “but you have a Christian in the house “referring to my husband.” Me “I neutralized him.” Mother “you have to come; it will be fun and

typically Polish.” Me - “Again with the Polish, the idea of huge quantities of good Italian food didn’t tempt me. How do you think I feel about large quantities of Polish food ?” ……silence.. and then “I can’t believe I gave birth to such a Bitch.” I will keep you posted as the story develops.

TRAVEL

OUT Destination: West Hollywood I

n my first visit to the West Coast in many years, I decided to venture out to the land of dreams, Los Angeles, California and more specifically, West Hollywood. In a region known for celebrities, rolling hills and mega mansions, West Hollywood is a wondrous enclave, with its own identity and a drastically different vibe than its surrounding neighbors. The most difficult part of your journey will be getting from Los Angeles International Airport to West Hollywood…the traffic in Los Angeles is legendary. But once you arrive, all of your worries seem to fade away. Check in at the newly renovated Le Montrose Suites, situated just blocks from Santa Monica Boulevard and minutes away from some of the most popular gay venues in the country. The magnificent boutique hotel offers a full-service restaurant, beautifully appointed suites complete with full kitchen, living space, balcony, flat screen televisions and luxury linens. Le Montrose also features a fitness center and rooftop pool overlooking the Los Angeles skyline, perfect for sun bathing or enjoying a late-night swim. A car isn’t really necessary in West Hollywood, unless you would like to take a trip to Malibu, Santa Monica or nearby Pasadena. Everything you need during your stay in WeHo is at your fingertips. Stop in at one of many LGBT-owned retail shops lining Santa Monica Blvd. and check out the latest fashion trends from local designers. For a delightful dining experience amongst the West Hollywood “It” crowd, head to Eveleigh, located on the famous Sunset Strip. Here, diners can feast on a variety of options. To start, try some of the wonderful “small plates,” which include: Crisp Spring Fennel with black olive aioli, Grilled Monteray Squid with garlic, lemon and olive oil or Roasted Bone Marrow with celery cress, radish and smoked sea salt. With something for every taste, Eveleigh is definitely one of the premier dining establishments in the area. The restaurant also offers a wonderful wine selection, perfect to accompany any entrée. I highly recommend the Grilled Boulder Valley hanger steak with crisp potatoes and caramelized onions or the

Roasted Half Jidori Chicken with picholine olives, almonds, preserved lemon, and golden raisins. After dinner, head back to Santa Monica Blvd. to one of over a dozen gay bars/clubs in the city. Of course, the most popular of them is The Abbey. Voted “Best Gay Bar in the World,” by Logo, The Abbey is located just

plore some of the cultural attractions West Hollywood has to offer. Begin at the MOCA Pacific Design Center. Founded in 1979, MOCA is the only museum in the region devoted exclusively to contemporary art. It is committed to the collection, presentation, and interpretation of work produced since 1940 in all media, and to preserving that

steps away from Le Montrose Suites. Owner David Cooley founded the venue 20 years ago as a coffee shop and since then, it has grown to the premier LGBT nightlife venue in West Hollywood with approximately 16,000 square feet of space. Drinks at The Abbey are a little pricier than other establishments, but well worth the money, especially their famous Raspberry Mojito, a drink recommended to me by many of their patrons. The bar also offers a wide selection of martini’s, old-fashioned lemonades and Caipirinhas. Dance the night away to the pulsating beats of some of the world’s greatest DJs who regularly visit The Abbey. After a night of partying, it’s time to ex-

work for future generations. The museum is about a twenty-minute walk from the hotel, but well worth the visit. Another highlight is the MAK Center for Art & Architecture. The MAK Center seeks out and supports projects which break down the boundaries between art and architecture. In addition to an ambitious schedule of events, the MAK Center hosts a bi-annual residency program for eight innovative artists and architects from outside the U.S. The famous Schindler House, at the site of the MAK Center, is considered to be the first house ever built in the Modern style. If all that sightseeing made you hungry, walk over to Tender Greens, a wonderful res-

taurant offering a selection of fresh soups, salads and grilled items. Try the with & , with & , Green Hummus Tabboleh, with & , with & , Green Hummus Tabboleh, Happy Vegan salad, a lovely blend of farro wheat, cranberries, cucumbers, hummus, beats and Quinoa. Another stand out is the Tuna Niciose salad, made with potatoes, quail egg, tomatoes and olives in a sherry vinaigrette. Just a few blocks away is Shahr Salon & Wellness, a lovely new wellness center offering a variety of salon and spa treatments including relaxing massages and luxurious facials. The property also features a private outdoor space for yoga and meditation. During my visit to Shahr, I was lucky enough to participate in a private yoga session taught by a very knowledgeable instructor who focused mainly on stretching and breath control. This was followed up by a wonderful 60-minute massage. I would highly recommend making the time to visit Shahr during your stay. A journey to West Hollywood would not be complete without visiting The Sunset Strip, a premier destination for the music, entertainment, and fashion. Some of the greatest bands in rock music got their start playing venues including The Viper Room, The Roxy and Whiskey a Go Go. “The Strip” is one of the most likely places in West Hollywood to bump into a celebrity. Those looking to spend more time with the “boys” or “girls” should head back to Santa Monica Boulevard to any one of the exciting bars which include Rage, Revolver, Fiesta Cantina, Micky’s and Here Lounge in addition to others. The drinks in WeHo are plentiful and the eye candy is as well. For more information, visit www.visitwesthollywood.com OUT Destinations is part of OUTreach Public Relations, a Nashville-based company specializing in LGBT marketing. Founded by Joey Amato, OUTreach PR has quickly become one of the most sought after companies for firms looking to target the ever growing and affluent LGBT consumer. For more information, please visit www.outreachpublicrelations. com.

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

FEATURE

An American Mother By Tony Adams excited to see it through his eyes,” she said. “I had always encouraged my kids to be what they want. Never said ‘I want a doctor.’ Maybe I should have. I sure didn’t get one! All my kids are fine. Kevin is an investment banker. Grant is on the production team of Jeopardy. Delilah is a senior VP at Sony television. Michelle is working for a clothing designer. My husband is still kicking.” One of Lance’s last wishes was that his parents who had divorced might reconcile, and that has transpired. Asked about a comparison she once made between her relationship with Lance and the relationship of Violet and Sebastian, the mother and son in the Tennessee Williams play Suddenly Last Summer, she said, “Violet was a very possessive woman. I didn’t mean to refer to that. I meant to refer to the rage of loss that she felt. That is what we have in common.” Asked about what she might do differently about the way she raised Lance, she said, “One thing I realized from the time he was small, you could never control Lance. He was his own boss from a very early age. I allowed it. Sometimes I tried to curb it but that didn’t work. You’ll read in the book that when Lance wanted to go to LA he would sneak out of our house by climbing out his window. He never hurt anyone by doing what he did. He loved his family and we all loved him. When he became ill in 1987, I came back from England to take care of him. I kept coming back and forth till in 1992 I sold my flat in England and I was with him full time. I didn’t try to live his life, but we did fight his illness together. When you fight together, you form a bond. That bond doesn’t die.” Loud spoke about how she felt about the 1973 Dick Cavett interview with Lance. That

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Photo courtesy of Pat Loud’s Agency

s Pat Loud talks about her son Lance, it is easy to forget that she is now 86 years old. Her voice has not changed, and despite the silver hair and some acquiescence to gravity, she is still the slender, mod and cool Santa Barbara housewife with the long dark coif, frosted lips, tinted Jackie O glasses and constant cigarette, who was introduced to us in 1973 as the matriarch of the landmark PBS television series An American Family, the firstever reality TV show. Loud has produced a book, Lance Out Loud, honoring her son Lance who shocked A m e r i c a n television audiences of 1973 when he came out of the closet in the course of the filming of the documentary about his family. In 2001, Lance Loud died at the age of 50 from complications related to his HIV and Hepatitis C. As his life drew to a close, he asked Alan and Susan Raymond, the documentarians who had made the original series, to turn their cameras on him again for what became PBS’s A Death In An American Family. Loud has kept the remembrance of her son and the artifacts of his life privately with a careful and sorrowful heart. Overcoming grief, she is now able to celebrate her remarkable son in the form of a book that is a fascinating collection of photographs, memorabilia and recollections by his friends. Loud describes becoming reacquainted with her son at the end of his life. “Lance and I lived together for quite a while after he became ill, so I got an opportunity to know him as an adult. In the book, we don’t try to whitewash him. He loved pop culture and had an almost intrinsic knowledge of it. I was always

Pat Loud Remembers Her Gay Son fascinating program, also featuring some others of her family, is viewable on Youtube and is exquisite and painful to watch despite Cavett’s kindness to a nervous naïve Lance who tries not to let his guard down having learned well how television can savage lives. Pat responded, “I haven’t seen it since we did it. Lance was a twenty-year old. From a small town. On that stage alone. By himself. He was brilliant. We were all defensive and angry. I don’t know if it showed.” Loud was the literary agent who first set eyes on the manuscript of Andrew Holleran’s beautiful 1978 novel Dancer From The Dance and and who realized its greatness. “In those days, manuscripts used to come to us in identical gray boxes. When I took home that gray box and opened it in bed that night, I just knew from the first sentence—it grabbed me,” she said. “It was so beautiful, and at the same time, it was about Lance’s New York world in many ways. That world is gone. So many dead. I can’t even tell you

how many men should have been here today who aren’t.” Today, in our post-Paris Hilton/ Kardashian/Honey Boo Boo era, we forget that in 1973, neither Pat nor Lance were armed with the dialect of reality television. Having been victimized by what they allowed into their home, the Louds managed to survive. “I am 86 years old and I am a Depression baby. My father was an engineer and had no work, having come back from Brazil where he worked on a project. Hard times for us, but I grew up with a sense of optimism. When Lance died, I already knew the stages of grief. I allowed myself to feel those things,” Loud said. “Time doesn’t heal, but it gives you distance and perspective from the horrible pain. As time goes by, you kind of grow a little callus over it. You protect yourself from it. Sometimes I think of something that I should tell Lance, and I do tell him. I still speak with him.”

VIEWS OF THE NEWS

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December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

VIEWS OF THE NEWS

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FEATURE

The Story of Jason King

Advocate Fighting HIV One Case at a Time

By J.W. Arnold

Editor’s Note: A profile on Jason King ran in the Nov. 27 issue of SFGN. Unfortunately it was riddled with mistakes, and we feel we have an obligation to put the story out correctly. We regret the error. Below is our replacement article.

ason King is a young man with many passions. The 26-year-old loves to play classical piano, enjoys fine wine and food, is a defender of the environment and he is completely committed to his job as Advocacy and Legislative Affairs Manager for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s (AHF) southern bureau in South Florida. Not that long ago, King might not have seemed to be a likely activist. He was living in his native Southern California, working as a personal assistant for one of the highest profile club producers in Los Angeles. And, like so many other young gay men, he was HIV-positive. “I found out when I was 19 … I’ve lived my entire adult life with HIV,” he recalled. “Inevitably, I knew I would get involved

in activism whether it was HIV or the environment or some other social cause.” It took a move to South Florida three years ago with a former boyfriend to finally send King on that journey. He took a job at AHF at his boyfriend’s suggestion, initially as a pharmacy specialist, working with case managers and doctors to get patients on medicine regimens. “We can best curb the epidemic by reducing the community viral loads,” explained King, who points out statistics prove HIV-positive patients are much less likely to spread the disease to HIV-negative partners if they are receiving antiretroviral therapy. More recently, he moved into his new position, noting that in many non-profits, staff must wear many “hats.” His duties include serving as a liaison to the various governmental entities that make policies and fund programs that affect HIV patients. He frequently lobbies the Florida Department of Health, Broward and Dade Counties, and the cities of Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors

and Miami, depending on the issue. In his role as advocacy manager, he works more closely with AHF clients, helping them to get into care, “to navigate the process” and obtain life-saving medications. AHF is a global organization, active in more than 25 countries and serving more than 180,000 patients, with expanding efforts in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Haiti. But King warns the epidemic is still a very real concern in the U.S. despite the steep decline in AIDS-related deaths in recent years. One in 25 gay men is HIV-positive in the 21 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S., and Florida still has the highest per capita infection rate with 365 new cases per 100,000 each year. The rapidly escalating costs of new therapies will make controlling the epidemic difficult, said King, and he is not afraid to challenge the multi-billion drug companies that control the industry. King also cites complacency as a major reason for new infections. “People just aren’t dying in the streets like they were in the ‘80s,” he said. “A lot of people just say, ‘I’ll take the drugs and everything will be okay’, but it’s not that simple. How long will it take for people to realize [HIV is] just not something you want to get?” Stigma is another problem, with a large percentage of HIV-positive people not even aware of their status. Some avoid testing because they’re afraid they won’t be accepted and in some states, knowingly passing on HIV to an uninfected partner can be prosecuted and result in jail terms up to 25 years. “Gay men have to understand the science … you can have a partner who’s positive if you’re not,” King added. “Behavioral intervention is a very difficult matter. Gay men are highly sexualized creatures, but our society can’t talk about the most basic

sexual issues in public, still.” Fortunately for King, his family was supportive, allowing him to adjust to his own status. He laughs as he tells the story of how the discussion with his mother took backseat to a Madonna concert: “She was turning 50 that year and was going to Las Vegas to see a Madonna concert. I waited a whole week to tell her,” he said, and she and his father became his biggest advocates, helping him to obtain his medications. In many ways, his own experience prepared him best for this important role at AHF. He related, “In a sense, I’m a face of what HIV looks like. There’s still a lot of ignorance and persecution of HIV-positive people. One can be positive and physically, mentally, socially and professionally survive. It’s okay to come out about your status.” King and his colleagues at AHF still have a challenging fight ahead, but he looks forward to the day — hopefully within the next 10 years — when a cure is developed. “I plan to see this to the end,” he concluded. “That’s how we’ll know we did our jobs.”

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

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FRI ART

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D E C E M B E R

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12/21

Photo courtesy of Kravis Center

F O R

Art on the Drive

ooking for a unique gift for that someone special who has everything? Forget the malls and instead, head to Wilton Drive for the Island City Arts Walk. Held on the third Friday of the month, the event features original works by local artists, all displayed in individual businesses up and down the drive. This month, ArtsUnited, the local organization of LGBT and allied artists, will be sponsoring a small works show at Atlantic Properties, 2039 Wilton Dr., from 7 to 9 p.m. According to President Peter Meyerhoefer, members will be displaying a wide variety of works from paintings and drawings to mixed media works. For more information, contact ArtsUnitedNews@ gmail.com. - J.W. Arnold

SAT MUSIC

12/14

A Jazz Prodigy at Arts Garage

rts Garage, the cool Delray Beach performance space that recently won a prestigious Knight Foundation grant, serves up some cool jazz for the holidays. Antonio Madruga, an 18-year-old piano prodigy, takes the stage as part of the Jazz Project, Saturday, Dec. 22 at 8 p.m. Madruga began playing the piano when he was three years old, and by the time he was 10, he was performing in Italy. He has been featured in an HBO documentary, and has played numerous times in the Miami International Piano Festival. He was awarded the Ella Fitzgerald Award for outstanding soloist at the 2011 Essentially Ellington Competition and Wynton Marsalis chose him as one of the upcoming “Who’s Got Next” new generation of upcoming jazz artists. In 2009, at the age of 16, he shared the stage with Paquito D’Rivera and Marsalis at the White House performing for the President and Mrs. Obama. Tickets are $25-35 in advance at ArtsGarage.org. - J.W. Arnold

Cast of Jersey Boys, photo by Joan Marcus

SAT THEATER

12/14

It’s Not Too Late!

here’s still time to catch these classic holidaythemed performances: The Nutcracker, the House Theatre of Chicago’s original dramatic take on the timeless holiday tale, runs at Miami’s Arsht Center through Dec. 30. Miami City Ballet’s Nutcracker, set to music by Tchaikovsky and choreographed by the legendary George Balanchine, is featured in the Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Arsht Center, Dec. 21-24. Tickets for both shows can be purchased at ArshtCenter.org. - J.W. Arnold

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

SAT THEATER

12/14

Broadway Comes to South Florida

he best of Broadway musical theatre hits stages across the region just in time for the holidays. In Fort Lauderdale, Broadway Across America presents Sister Act at the Broward Center through Dec. 30. Join in the fun as Delores VanCartier and her zany nuns avoid gangsters, thanks to a little “divine intervention.” Tickets start at $39.95 at BrowardCenter.org. Meanwhile, in West Palm Beach, Jersey Boys, the musical tale of superstars Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons opens Wednesday and runs through Jan. 6 at the Kravis Center. You’ll clap and sing along all night long with these Jersey boys’ greatest hits. Tickets start at $40 at Kravis.org. Mary Poppins, the beloved British nanny, lands at Miami’s Arsht Center, Jan. 1 to Jan. 6. Relive the magic of the Disney film, come to life on stage, in this brilliant adaptation. - J.W. Arnold

A&E

Being An Elf on Christmas One man play shows what it’s like to be a mall Santa’s helper By Gideon Grudo

Photo by Justin Namon

hen the mall elf takes your child and helps them to Santa’s lap, ever wonder what’s really going through their minds? There’s a funny (and dark) play for that.

Michael McKeever as Crumpet, the disgruntled Elf in The Santaland Diaries, a screen adaption of essays by David Sedaris.

Humorist David Sedaris answers a bit of this question in his Santaland Diaries, a collection of essays about spending time working for a Macy’s Santa in New York City. The essays were adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello. This show is basically a long collection of rants and anecdotes by Crumpet, a man who takes up work as an elf at the mall, about the inanity of the Christmas spirit as it gets digested by consumerism, and other things. Award-winning Michael McKeever delivers a non-stop thrill ride of humor-laced stories, sometimes dark and sometimes cheery. McKeever performed the piece before at the Zoetic Stage in Miami, and recently worked for Caldwell’s productions of Stuff and Distracted. Award-winning director Kim St. Leon (Brooklyn Boy, “Lost Everything”) constructed a worthwhile and captivating show. Don’t expect to sit silently at this show, as McKeever draws you in enthusiastically to partake in the holiday spirit, chanting Santa’s name. Otherwise, the majority of the play is Crumpet’s introspection and lucid digestion

of the world he’s entered — out of financial necessity — and how he makes sense of it and himself. Crumpet routinely shows us the various characters he encounters by acting them out, from a motivating supervisor to an old woman to a woman trying to photograph her children. Beware Crumpet’s politically incorrect cynicism and very mild profanity if those things bother you, as he tends to cross such topics as racism and chauvinism. There’s even a little anecdote about a young Snowball who unknowingly seduces some men and then misunderstands their approaches — all in good taste, kinda. Crumpet’s co-working elf Elfina (Sheri Wieseman), who regularly provides our storyteller with “martini” glasses, provides timely relief from Crumpet’s banter and eventually counts the show down. The stage and lighting draw the show into perfect focus, keeping your eyes on Crumpet the entire time. During the darker moments, you’ll find yourself floating along with Crumpet’s emotional stirrings, the dark red lights around you affecting it all. From giant candy canes to stuff animals to Santa’s giant chair, the stage is set for Crumpet’s pseudoconfessional. See McKeever again in a collection of his own short plays in January, when he brings The Whole Caboodle to The Studio. For more information, go to www. paradeproductions.org.

If You Go When: Through Dec. 23 Various times Where: The Studio at Mizner Park 201 Real Plaza Boca Raton, FL 33432 How Much: $35

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

December 19, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ SouthFloridaGayNews.com

A&E

Scrooge & Marley A Christmas Carol by Richard Knight By Justin Wyse

as story of a lost love, family values and friendship in the modern age of gay and lesbian values while keeping the traditional theme of changing life and becoming a better person. This is by far one of the best gay movies I have ever seen and is groundbreaking, and will become a part of gay history in years to come. Richard Knight I think has achieved his goal of being able to be part of the popular culture through his remake of the film. Don’t just take my word for it; view the trailer for Scrooge & Marley online at (www.youtube. com/watch?v=n03gbqx0_xw). The movie was released on Nov. 29th and available on both DVD and Blu-ray and can be purchased on Amazon.com, don’t miss out on this Holiday movie. Photo By Project Publicity

t’s the Holiday Season and there is no better way to celebrate than to be able to watch a timely classic like A Christmas Carol. Director Richard Knight brings us the story of Scrooge & Marley with a modern day twist. David Pevsner portrays Scrooge as the first ever gay character. With the popularity of Modern Family, The New Normal and Glee it’s no surprise that a classic like this one can be delivered to us in 2012. With stars Tim Kazurinsky from Saturday Night Live and six-time Emmy award winner Bruce Vilanch, lesbian actress Megan Cavanagh, gay actors Ronnie Kroell and David Moretti, Richard has produced a movie that all audiences today will enjoy. Richard casted a group of actors that allow him to portray this with a new twist to tell

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By J.W. Arnold

hen the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards nominees were announced last week, few were surprised to see Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln among the most nominated films. Daniel Day Lewis (Abraham Lincoln) was already heavily favored to be a contender in the Best Actor categories and any film by Steven Spielberg is likely to be taken seriously by voters. The cast, including Sally Field (Mary Todd Lincoln), Tommy Lee Jones (Thaddeus Stevens) and David Straithairn (William Seward), also got a nod from SAG, and with the Academy Award nominations coming soon, the film is expected to be a contender in many technical and design categories, too. Even though the film has been out for nearly a month, I finally headed to the Cineplex for a screening. I was expecting an epic, and Director Spielberg delivered, but in the lessons of 19th century history, I was also surprisingly—and constantly—reminded of today’s fight for LGBT rights. Be forewarned: At nearly two-and-a-half hours, Lincoln is a long, talky movie. It’s a study (based on presidential scholar Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln) of the political machinations Lincoln had to initiate to get the 13th Amendment passed in the House of Representatives. There are some battle scenes and Lincoln leaves the capital to assess the losses at the Battle of Petersburg, but most of the film is spent behind closed doors as the President twists arms and cuts deals to secure the necessary two-thirds majority necessary. Historians may have differing opinions on Spielberg’s film, but throughout, I found myself constantly reminded of the legal challenges faced by the LGBT community to

any number of contemporary issues including basic marriage equality, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Defense of Marriage Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The Democrats in the House in 1865 recognized that if a peace deal could be struck first, the push for equality for African-Americans might be halted. They also argued that equality would lead to the vote for blacks and eventually women, “a sin against human nature and God.” The fearmongers warned of interracial marriages and the collapse of civil society if the amendment passed. Not unlike the LGBT outreach to key Republican state senators in New York that led the way to marriage equality in that state, Lincoln and his allies targeted a number of lame duck Democrats, appealing to their consciences (and in this case, offering political payoffs). For three of the four New York Republicans, their act of conscience last year made history, but cost them their political careers. With the passage of the amendment in the House, the Southern states then demanded immediate readmission to the Union, so they could defeat the amendment from passing the requisite number of state legislatures. A request Lincoln would thwart. Like so many historical dramas, we know how this film ends (yep, Lincoln gets shot), yet Spielberg created a political drama that is still compelling as the final vote is cast. We don’t know how the modern-day fight for LGBT equality will end, but, hopefully, the lessons of the past will inform and inspire our electorate, lawmakers and Supreme Court justices. Once again, we can only hope they will follow their consciences and choose to be on the right side of history.

Photo courtesy of Dreamworks Pictures

Local Name. Global Coverage.

Lincoln

Lessons of the Past Provide Guide for Future

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

By Brian Swinford

Have an event you want to list? If so send me an email at Calendar@sfgn.com.

Theater Broward County Agatha Christie’s The BBC Murders

Agatha Christie’s Classic Mystery Series The BBC Murders on Tuesday, Jan. 15 through Sunday, Feb. 3. Four Agatha Christie classics, Three Blind Mice, Yellow Iris, Butter in a Lordly Dish and Personal Call have been adapted for the stage by Judith Walcutt and David Ossman from lost BBC radio scripts. Tickets are $26.50 to $66.50. Showtimes vary. Call Rachel at 954-776-1999 ext. 230

An Evening With The Stars Of Doo Wop

Sunday, Jan. 6 at 7 p.m. The Doo Wop extravaganza will include stars such as Kenny Vance and The Planotones (“Looking For An Echo,”) Terry Johnsons Flamingos (“Only Have Eyes For You,”) Jimmy Clanton (“Venus In Blue Jeans”) and The Mystics (“Hush a Bye”). Tickets range in price from $41.50 to $61.50. Call Rachel 954-776-1999 ext. 230

Romeo and Juliet

The State Ballet Theatre of Russia presents Romeo and Juliet, the ultimate Shakespearean tragic love story, Friday, Jan. 4 and Saturday, Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m. This two-act ballet is choreographed and produced by Michael Lavrovsky, principal dancer and choreographer of 25 years for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Tickets are from $31.50 to $61.50. Call Rachel at 954-776-1999 ext. 230

Monty Python’s Spamalot

At the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Friday and Saturday, January 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. Lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot tells the legendary tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table and features a bevy of beautiful showgirls, not to mention cows, killer rabbits and French people. Tickets start at $25, $39, $49, $59 and $65 with Club Level seats available for $109. Call 954-462-0222

Laffing Matterz

Laffing Matterz at the Broward Center continues in the Abdo New River Room Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. and selected Sundays throughout the season at 4:30 p.m. Taking on the latest scandal, social media, current events and everything in-between, Laffing Matterz at the Broward Center combines the best of dinner theater with the hilarity of topical satire. Admission is $59 and $65 and includes the show and a dinner with house salad, a choice of entrée and warm sourdough bread. Visit BrowardCenter.org

Itzhak Perlman

Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman returns to the Broward Center for an intimate new recital performance on Monday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Au-Rene Theater. A master of baroque, classical, romantic and modern music, Perlman has also delighted audiences with everything from the brave old world of klezmer to the limitless frontiers of jazz and beyond. His performances are “everything one wants a violin sound to be,” wrote veteran critic Andrew Porter in The New Yorker. Tickets are $35, $55, $75 and $95. Visit BrowardCenter.org

Shear Madness

The longest running play in American theater history Shear Madness is cutting loose and heading to the Amaturo Theater through Sunday, Dec. 30. The Shear Madness hairstyling salon is scandalized by the wacky murder of its illustrious upstairs neighbor and if the shop doesn’t get to the bottom of things soon someone is going to die laughing. Showtimes are Tuesday to Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $39. Visit BrowardCenter. org

Sister Act

Sister Act through Sunday, Dec. 30 in the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center. Visit BrowardCenter.org

Palm Beach County Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Circus:

A Holiday Circus Spectacular, an all-new powerful surge of circus entertainment. Come experience the magic of the season like never before with The Greatest Show On Earth as they harness the energy of the audience to power the performers. Celebrate as they light up the floor and transform energy and power into megawatts of thrills and excitement at this limited holiday performance. Dec 25. Visit Ringling.com Jersey Boys This is the story about Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Four Seasons, and how four blue-collar kids became one of the greatest successes in pop music history. Dec. 19 through Jan. 6 at the Kravis Center of the Performing Arts. Visit Kravis.org Musical Theatre Masters Series Palm Beach Dramaworks, (201 Clematis Street/ West Palm Beach), announces new Musical Theatre Masters Series. Modeled after PBD’s very popular Master Playwrights Series, the new series will kick off on Jan. 11-13. The series will be directed by Clive Cholerton, Musical director for Camelot is Caryl Fantel. All tickets are $35.00. Call 561-514-4042 or visit Palmbeachdramaworks.org

Miami-Dade An Affair of the Arts Performance and Gala

The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) will honor director and choreographer Debbie Allen, violinist Joshua Bell and actor and alumnus Adrian Grenier at An Affair of the Arts Performance and Gala on Saturday, Jan. 12, held in Downtown Miami at the Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts and the Historic Alfred I. DuPont Building. Contact Ellen Gray at 305-377-1140 X1208 or Email: egray@youngarts.org Broadway in Miami 2012-13 This season Ziff Ballet Opera House through May 12 will hold the Broadway In Miami spectacle. Experience the return of the world’s greatest musical spectacle - Les Misérables - in its lavish new 25th anniversary production, along with the Miami premieres of Broadway’s biggest fun-filled hits - including the high-stepping Mary Poppins, the outlandishly colorful Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the awesomely cool Rock of Ages, and - the 2010 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical Memphis, a triumph of explosive dancing and powerhouse songs. Visit Arshtcenter.org

Community Calendar Broward County Floral Designs for the Holidays

“Flower Designs for the Holidays”. Janice Hamlin, Master Flower Show Judge from the Manatee River Garden Club in Bradenton, Florida will inspire us by demonstrating the creation of flower designs for the holidays. Call 954-561-8475. Visit FLGardenClub@gmail.com

LGBT Quit Smoking Groups - Free Nicotine Patches

Did you know that LGBT people are more likely to smoke than most any other population group in the United States? Being around other Smokers can make it more difficult for people in our communities to quit. But many of us are trying, and the Quit Smoking Now Program in Wilton Manors is here to show us how to quit and stay without smoking. Visit My.vcita.com/myquitcoach QuitsmokingWM.com or call 305-942-6378

The 6th Annual I Care I Cure…I Run 5K

The 6th Annual I Care I Cure…I Run 5K and Family Fun Day! is on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 7:30 a.m. at the BB&T Center (formerly BankAtlantic Center), 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise, Florida. Register online at: www.icareicure.org, Adults $25 and Children $20. The I Care I Cure Childhood Cancer Foundation supports the development of, and raises public awareness about, cutting-edge research for targeted therapies for childhood cancer. Contact Sue Trilling at 800-807-8013

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Man2Man Discussion

Man2Man Discussion Group meets at the Pride Center on Mondays from 7 until 8:30 p.m. Any subject may be discussed. Members regularly reassemble afterwards for ‘repast’ at The Courtyard, PeterPan Diner. Visit Glccsf.org

Have an event you want to list? If so send me an email at Calendar@sfgn.com. Island City-Wide Yard Sale

Annual Island city-wide yard sale. The Yard Sales are held at Hagen Park, 2020 Wilton Drive, on the second Saturday of the month through April 2013 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The City Yard Sales spaces will be available to purchase. Takes place Jan. 12 and February 9. Last year, the yard sales hosted from 60 to 90 vendors, so register early while there is still space. More info call the Leisure Services Department at 954-390-2115 or 954-390-2130.

Color Vibe 5K

Color Vibe 5k run is coming to Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 5. At the Color Vibe 5k run, YOU are the color canvas, and when you’re finished with us you’ll be an exciting and vivid masterpiece. So tag your friends and hook everybody up with the coolest 5k run to hit the streets. This is one amazing color blast you won’t want to miss! Event begins at 9 a.m. The Color Vibe Ft. Lauderdale 5k run will take place at the Central Broward Regional Park in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Visit TheColorVibe.com

The Four Noble Truths

We all have certain things that feel to us like true sources of happiness, but which in reality have caused us no end of suffering, time and time again. It is our mind of attachment that continues to deceive us, causing us to relate to these things in mistaken ways, and leading us straight into problems and misfortune. Learn how to break this cycle. $10/class or $30/ series includes vegetarian food after class, members free. Visit MeditationInFortLauderdale.org

Pozitive Attitudes

Topic driven Peer lead support group for gay and bisexual men who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. Meets every Wednesday 7-9 p.m. at the Pride Center 204 N.Dixie Hwy Room 204. Refreshments, no charge, open meeting. PAHereandNow@aol.com www.PozitiveAttitudes.com

Meditation After Work *Denotes new listing

Queer Youth Friday Nights

LGBTQ and allied youth group for people13-21. This Is a drop in group anytime from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. This youth group will be SunServe building on 1480 SW 9th Ave on the second floor. A Safe Space to be yourself! Queer Themed Movie showing at 7 p.m. on Friday nights. This group is a safe hangout to meet new friends, free Wi-Fi to bring your laptop or your iPad, plus board games that you can bring or play the ones that they provide at the group. Visit Sunserve.org/youth/index.htm

GLBX Business Advantage Referral Group

GLBX Business Advantage Referral Group will be held at the chamber offices on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month from 8 to 9 a.m. The leads group is looking for additional members. If you are interested joining, please contact Ken Stollar at Kenneth.Stolar@sci-us.com to see if your category is open and to attend as a guest. Visit Ftlchamber.com/index. php?src=gendocs&ref=GLBX_home&category=GLBX

Queer Youth Nights

LGBTQ & allied youth 13-21 are welcome any time after 6 p.m. at the SunServe building on Wilton Drive for a great place to meet new friends, play board games and a Queer Themed Movie at 7 p.m. Email Afrosch@sunServe.org

Latinos Salud’s programs

Multiple programs and groups for bi/gay Latino guys. Latinos Salud’s SOMOS program is for guys 18 to 30. All proceeds will benefit Latinos Salud in our efforts to educate on HIV Prevention and testing. Every Thursday night at 7 p.m. join the Core Group, and help plan alternative activities. Also offers Popular Opinion Leader group for guys ages 25 to 44 and a Life Coaching program for guys ages 18 to 44. Come by Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for free one-on-one life coaching with certified CRCS coaches. Located at 2330 Wilton Drive. Call 954-533-8681 or visit Latinossalud.org

On Mondays from 6-6:30 p.m. there will be Guided meditation w/ western Buddhist teacher Gui Passow. Looking for a way to rest and re-charge before starting your evening? Come in for a free guided meditation to clear your mind at the end of the day. This class is free at Drolma Buddhist Center. Call 954-537-9191 or visit meditationinfortlauderdale.org

Buddhist Meditation Classes

All the happiness there is in the world arises from wishing others to be happy. By abandoning self-centered thoughts and replacing them with the belief that others are important, we will overcome our suffering and find true happiness inside our own hearts. $10/class or $30/series includes vegetarian food after class. Call The Drolma Buddhist Center at 954-537-9191.

Dream Car Classic

Every Sunday of the month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pre-1980s classic cars, modern classics and custom cars from 1981-2012 will be showcased. $10 car registration from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. (Show Car Entrance: 20th Avenue & Tyler Street). People’s Choice Award - 2 Classes; Top Ten Vehicles Award. Call 954214-2457

Living Healthy

Fusion in Wilton Manors will be having a free workshop on healthy choices, and healthy living on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. This workshop provides interactive learning, practice and mastery techniques for a healthier and more active life, and positive changes for quality of life. Call 954-630-1655

Sex & Love Anonymous

S.L.A.A. believes that sex and love addiction is a progressive illness which cannot be cured but which, like many illnesses, can be arrested. It may take several forms -- including, but not limited to, a compulsive need for sex, extreme dependency on one or many people, or a chronic pre-occupation with romance, intrigue, or fantasy. Meets at The Pride Center at Equality Park in Bldg A, Room 200 Fridays 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Visit Slaafws.org

Survivor Support

A Survivor Support Group is being held on the first and third Wednesday of each month at the 211 Community Center, 250 NE 33rd Street, in Oakland Park. The Florida Initiative for Suicide Prevention (FISP) is sponsoring this free support group and is open to all family members and friends of those who have died by suicide. Call 954-384-0344 to register. Meets from 7-8:30 p.m. Visit Fisponline.org.

Eating Disorder Support

Meets Friday evenings from 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. At Sun Serve’s Wilton Manors location at 2123 Wilton Drive, second floor. A “drop-in” psycho-educational support group. Free. No registration required. Donations welcome. Call 954-764-5150

Sunday Jazz Brunch

First Sunday of every month. An ideal way to relax and enjoy Fort Lauderdale’s scenic Riverwalk. Live, outdoor concert series bringing the area’s best local jazz artists. Listen to the soulful sounds on four different stages. Well-behaved, leashed pets welcome. Plenty of room for chairs, blankets and picnic baskets.

Young Adult GLBT

A social group open to all LGBT people ages 18-35. Meets Fridays at the Pride Center in Wilton Manors from 7:15-9 p.m. Meeting starts with a discussion on current events followed by introductions and then a group activity. Visit PrideCenterFlorida.org/contact-us

Life Coaching

Latinos Salud’s Life Coaching program is for Latino gay/bi guys ages 18-44. Come by Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for free one-on-one life coaching with certified CRCS coaches. Set your goals, and meet action steps to make them come true. 2330 Wilton Drive. Call 954-765-6239. Visit Latinossalud. org

Boardwalk Friday Fest

Come out to Hollywood Beach Theatre East of A1A at Johnson St and the ocean. Admission: Free every Friday of every month. Live jazz, blues, pop and everything in between along Hollywood’s signature 2.5 mile boardwalk. Charming oceanfront cafes and restaurants serve up delicious innovative cuisine while you enjoy the best array of live music and tropical ocean breezes. Visit Hollywoodfl.org or call 954-924-2980

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Toastmasters

Most Toastmasters meetings are comprised of about 20 people who meet weekly for an hour or so. Participants practice and learn skills by filling a meeting role, ranging from giving a prepared speech or an impromptu one to serving as timer, evaluator or grammarian. Toastmasters meet at the GLCC/Pride Center Monday at 7:15 p.m. Call Ted Verdone at 954-566-2074 or email: Tedverdone@comcast.net

Tuesday Night Eatin Meeting

Tuesday Night Eatin’ Meeting will be held at The Alternative MC Clubhouse at 4322 NE 5th Ave in Oakland Park. Fun, food, and fellowship. There will be hamburgers, hotdogs, all the fixins, cold drinks, desserts, and snacks. Meeting begins at 8 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m. Visit Alternativemc.com/events/ florida-events

Gay Male Empowerment

Topic discussions include issues and concerns about being a gay man in South Florida. Meets Thursdays at the Pride Center from 7 - 8:30 p.m. Call 954-353-9155

PFLAG

Meets on the 2nd and 4th Tues. of the month at the Sunshine Cathedral at 1480 SW 9th Avenue to support the parents of LGBTQ youth in Broward. No charge. Visit Community.pflag. org/pflagfortlauderdale

SunServe Therapy Groups

Provided for the LGBT community at SunServe on a regular basis. Call the Intake Coordinator at 954-764-5150 to learn which therapy groups have openings. Groups Include a Gay Men’s HIV+ Long Time Survivors’ Group, a Safe “T” support group for gender variant adults, an Intimate Partner Abuse group and others. Visit SunServe.org

Fusion Wilton Manors - Connections

Gay men’s group discussion. Different subject every week. Dr. David Fawcett, a gay therapist, who has been in private practice in Fort Lauderdale for the last ten years, leads the event. No charge. Starts at 7 p.m. Call 954-630-1655.

Women4Women Support

A safe and loving place to explore all the concerns and topics raised by group members. This open drop-in meeting is held Wednesdays at 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the New Sun Serve Building at 2312 Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors. Call 954-764-5150

Man2Man Discussion

Man-2-Man talk is an informal discussion group of gay men, with all age ranges and backgrounds welcomed. Bldg A, Room 206. Visit Glccsf.org/calendar/

Palm Beach County The Santaland Diaries

The Santaland Diaries will open Parade Productions’ second season through Dec. 23 at the Studio Theatre at Mizner Park in Boca Raton. The Santaland Diaries hilariously relates David Sedaris’ experiences when he reluctantly worked as an elf in Macy’s Christmastime Santaland display, and offers an uproarious behind-the-scenes look at how department stores manufacture Christmas spirit. Visit ParadeProductions.org

Women of Ancient Greece and Rome

Griffin Gallery Ancient Art invites you to its upcoming exhibition opening of Women of Ancient Greece and Rome on Dec.13, 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. Our holdings include over five hundred authentic artifacts that reflect a spectrum of the cultures of Antiquity in addition to Contemporary fine works of art. Among our treasures are pieces from Greece, Rome, Egypt, the Far East, the Near East, the Holy Land, Pre-Columbian cultures, and pre historic Native America. Visit Griffingallery.net

Lake Worth Bike Night

The Lake Worth bike night is fun, and it’s for a cause. Join loads of people in downtown Lake Worth every Thursday from 7 p.m.-10 p.m.. The event is free and open to bikers and nonbikers. Visit Lakeworthbikenight.com

Alternative Life Style Show Featured guests contribute to the community. All are welcomed to call in. Many give aways and prizes including a contest for free buffets at Isle Capri Casino in Pompano. You can also listen by adding W4CYRADIO to SKYPE or call in at 561-623-9429. Up coming spotlights on parties of interest and special events.

PFLAG

PFLAG is a monthly support, coming out and rap groups for families of & for Gay, Lesbian, Bi, and Transgender people. Meeting in Palm Beach County is at 6:30 on the third Wednesday of the month. Call or email Carol at 561-716-9464 Pflag@ pobox.com

New Alternatives

Social group with regular outings and social mixers for LGBTQ ages 18 to 30. This meeting will take place at The Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Palm Beach County. Email matthew@compassglcc.com or Visit Compassglcc.com.

Sober Sisters AA

Support group is dedicated for lesbians who are recovering from alcoholism. Meeting happens every Monday at 7 p.m. at Lambda North Clubhouse. Visit LambdaNorth.net

PBC Gender Support

All ages support group dedicated for transgender individuals. This meeting happens the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month at 7:30 p.m. These meeting will take place at The Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Palm Beach County. Visit Compassglcc.com

Good Orderly AA

These meetings now take place at Lambda North at 18 S. J Street, and geared toward recovering alcoholics. Every Tues. and Thurs. at 7 p.m. and on Sat. at 5:30 p.m. These meetings will help recovering alcoholics cope with the stress of everyday life without the use of alcohol. Email tcamie@aol.com

Seniors vs. Crime

Seniors vs. Crime is a free service that provides help to seniors who have been victimized by businesses or service providers and need assistance. This event will take place at Mae Volen Senior Center at 1515 W. Palmetto Park Road. By appointment only so call 561-736-3820 or 561-395-8920.

Yoga On The Waterfront

Lake Pavilion at 101 S. Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach, FL / Yoga On The Waterfront in downtown West Palm Beach on Wednesday Evenings at 5:45 p.m. Residents $40 per 8 week session, Non-Residents $50 per 8 week session, Drop-ins $10 per class. To register, please call 561-804-4902.

YOGA Among the Orchids

It’s time for Yoga Among the Orchids at the American Orchid Society, 16700 AOS Lane, Delray Beach. Relax and replenish the flower inside with an hour of breathing exercises, toning, and yoga poses under a canopy of lush orchids. Classes are Wed. at 9 a.m. Cost is $20 and RSVP is suggested. Call 561404-2011. Visit OrchidWeb.org

Jazz on the Palm

Jazz on the Palm - Downtown West Palm Beach Waterfront - Gather with friends and family to enjoy the diverse vibrant sounds of jazz under the stars every 3rd Friday of month at the new Downtown West Palm Beach waterfront concert series. Free and open to the public. Guests are encouraged to bring blankets and chairs. From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Visit Wpbgo. com/2010/06/jazz-on-the-palm

BrothasSpeak

This group is a black gay men’s discussion group that is held at the Compass in West Palm Beach. Every Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. this group will be directed toward issues for and about black men. Visit Compassglcc.com

Paths

Paths is a social/discussion group held at Compass in Lake Worth. This men’s group takes place every Monday from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Paths men’s group will be discussing relationships, coming out, safer sex issues and more. Visit Compassglcc.com

Yoga

Yoga with Deborah will change your life. Bring a mat and get ready to stretch the stress away every Tuesday at The GLCC in Palm Beach from 6 to 7 p.m. This yoga experience will uplift and transform your life. $6 Entry Fee. You must bring your own mat. Visit Compassglcc.com

Living Buddhism

On the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. Compass in Lake Worth will be holding a discussion group for overcoming obstacles and obtaining happiness. This group is great for getting internal enlightenment. Release your inner stress, and become free. Visit Compassglcc.com

Miami-Dade Ransom Mondays

Need an excuse to keep partying well after the weekend is over? The Monday-night party at the recently renovated Collins Park lounge. This amazing party will take place at Mokai in Miami Beach. The party, hosted by Mark Lehmkuhl, sort of takes now-defunct Bella Rose’s Black Sunday murder mystery theme but gives it a Patty Hearst twist. Every week, some prominent nightlife fixture gets held for ransom, and the only way it gets returned is if you party your ass off. Only $20 to attend. Visit Mokaimiami.com

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

Mona’s

502 E. Sunrise Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304, (954) 5256662. The eclectic décor and a friendly staff makes. Mona’s a great place to have fun in Fort Lauderdale. Thursday’s College Boy’s Night 8 p.m. Enjoy College Boy’s Choice 2 for 1

Have an event you want to list? If so send me an email at Calendar@sfgn.com. Rainbow Circle

Rainbow Circle is a peer-led LGBTQ support & discussion group. Topics covered often include coming out, relationships, bullying, peer pressure, drugs & alcohol, depression and self-esteem. You pick and develop discussion topics and are able to express your thoughts and feelings without fear in a safe and supportive environment. This group will take place every Monday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the University of Miami, Flipse Building #302. Visit Pridelines.org

Sex Talk

Sex Talk: Peer Health Educators are young LGBTQ adults who learn how to talk to other young adults about sex, sexuality and HIV/STD prevention. You’ll conduct outreach events, record video messages, participate in a series of performances and organize special events with a purpose. This event takes place the second and fourth Thursday every month at Pridelines Headquarters located at 9526 NE 2nd Ave #104 In Miami Shores from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Visit Pridelines.org

Lambda Dade Clubhouse

A meeting place for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender communities and friends in recovery. Hosts Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Al-Anon, Crystal Meth Anonymous (CMA), Debtors Anonymous (DA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), and Sex & Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA), meetings. (305) 573-9608. 212 NE 24th Street. Miami. Visit Lambdadadeclubhouse.org

Monkey Business *Denotes new listing

nightlife Broward County 321-Slammer

2740 North Andrews Ave, Wilton Manors, FL 33311. (954) 514-7819. The Monkey Business Bar is a Small Outdoor Bar Among The Shops Just off Marina Blvd. No Frills But Comfortable and a Great Place to Stop and Meet Good People. Happy Hour 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Naked Grape Wine Bar

2039 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL 33305. (954) 563-5631. A Casual, Hip, Fun Experience and if You Have a Taste for Deliciously Unique Wines, You Need to Make This Your Next Stop! Happy Hour All Night on Thursday

Bathhouse. 321 W Sunrise Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 33311. Slammer sex club the best place to cruise for the hottest gay men. Thursday’s is leather night, Friday and Saturday night live DJs. Monday & Tuesday -- $9 entry fee

New Moon

Atomic Boom

PJ’s Corner Pocket

2440 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL 33305, (954) 563-7660. Your neighborhood lesbian bar in the heart of Fort Lauderdale and just minutes from Fort. Lauderdale Beach. Wednesday All the fun, half the price 2-4-1 All Day, All Night

2232 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL 33305, (954) 630-3556 Best Sound & Light Show in Broward County. Mondays “porn bingo” with Desiree Dubois. $3 Margaritas, $1 Draft

924 North Flagler Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304, (954) 533-0257. One of The Most Diverse Bars in Fort Lauderdale. $2 Drinks Every Wednesday, Spades Every Thursday

Bill’s Filling Station

Ramrod

2209 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL 33305, (954) 567-5978. Large bar/ nightclub, amazing drink specials in Wilton Manors! Wednesday’s after 9 p.m. $10 Miller Lite Beer Bust

Boardwalk

1721 N. Andrews Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311. (954) 463-6969. A Cute Little Hangout in Fort Lauderdale. Pool-room/game room on one side and a bar/strip club on the other. Mondays $3 Well & Dom, after 9 p.m. $3 U-Call-It Shots

The Club Fort Lauderdale

Bathhouse. 110 NW 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL, (954) 5253344 Good. Clean. Fun. 1/2 price rooms...Tuesday Nights and 1/2 price Lockers. Thursdays Nights. Always busy.

Clubhouse II

Bathhouse. 2650 E. Oakland Park Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (954) 566-6750. A Private Club for Bi/Gay men. “Bear and Friends” Thursday $5 Off a room 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday Leather Night - $5 off for those in full leather gear.

Corner Pub Bar

1915 N. Andrews Ave, Wilton Manors, FL 33311, (954) 564-7335. Redefining what a bar should be. Thursday’s margarita madness $4, Monday’s “Underwear Night. 2 for 1” until 9:30 p.m.

Cubby Hole

823 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304, (954) 728-9001. The Cubby Hole is one of Fort Lauderdale’s most unique and popular Neighborhood bar for men. Underwear Wednesday’s. “Boxers n’ Briefs” get 2 for 1 drinks 9 p.m. to close

The Depot Cabana Bar and Grill

2935 N. Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304, (954) 5377076. Voted the “Friendliest” Gay Bar in Fort Lauderdale. Monday’s $1.99 Drinks and $.50 wings open to close

Dudes Bar

3270 NE 33rd St Fort Lauderdale FL 954-568-7777. Sexy hot men starting to shake the booty daily from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. On Sundays enjoy karaoke with Peter Petrucci. Great drink specials every Monday with $1 well drinks from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.

1508 NE 4th Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304, (954) 763-8219. South Florida’s Leading Levi, Leather and Uniform Bar/Club. Every night is Bear Night. Bear Happy. Hour Every Thursday. Caged Hunks Sat Night

Rosie’s Bar and Grill

2449 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL 33305, (954) 567-1320. Wilton Manor’s Best Burger in Town. Try the Fat Elvis. Happy Hour 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Scandals Country Western Bar

Oakland Park, FL 3334, (954) 567-2432. Scandals Gay and Lesbian Country Western. Dance Bar in Wilton Manors. Tuesdays Pool League, and Free Dance Lessons

Sidelines Sports Bar

2031 Wilton Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33305, (954) 563-8001. Sidelines Sports Bar and Billiards is a unique, friendly, and accepting place to relax with a cold beer, great drinks and Martinis. Happy Hour M-F 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Looking for a relaxing place to spend the early afternoon? Or perhaps you want to come in and “work?” We have incredibly fast WiFi, complimentary outlets for you to power up your phone or laptop AND 2-4-1 Happy Hour Monday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Palm Beach County The Cottage (Tea-Dance Sundays)

522 Lucerne Ave, Lake Worth, Fl, 33414. (561) 586-0080 Great Service, Great Food, Full Stocked Bar, Great Professional Tea-Dance every Sunday

Fort Dix

6205 Georgia Ave, West Palm Beach, Florida 33405 Directions, (561) 533-5355. Mostly local crowd looking to mingle and relax. Place rocks with a Fabulous DJ on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sunday T-Dance.

H.G. Rooster

823 BELVEDERE ROAD, WEST PALM BEACH FLORIDA 33405, (561)-832-9119. H.G. Roosters is West Palms oldest gay club. Sunday’s Complimentary BBQ 5 p.m., Hot Male Dancers 6 p.m., Karaoke 11 p.m.

Mara (Thurs-Sat)

1132 North Dixie Highway, Lake Worth FL $3 Drinks. No Cover. Open till 5 a.m. Ladies night on Thursdays and Karaoke on Fridays.

The Mad Hatter

1532 North Dixie Hwy ,Lake Worth, FL 33460. (561) 547-8860. Cheap drinks, friendly bartenders, and free pool SundayThursday. Stop by and relax at this no-attitude haunt.

The Bar Lake Worth

2211 North Dixie Highway Lake Worth. (561) 370-3954 Thebarlakeworth.com. Men and women share this mostly-locals space as a calm and friendly watering hole. The bar often features live music which can be a nice break from thumping bass.

Tag Bar

25 Northeast 2nd Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33483 954-801-3247. Delray Beach’s only gay bar. Mon - Sun: 4 p.m. - 2 a.m. Awesome Drink Specials.

Miami-Dade Club Space

Smarty Pants

3038 North Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306, (954) 561-1724. Great Local Hangout in Fort Lauderdale with Great Drink Specials. Saturday’s Free Breakfast to Order – 8 a.m.

34 NE 11th St ,Miami ,Florida, 33132,(305) 350-1956 Space Miami Voted Best U.S Club IDMA 2011. The go-to venue for any nightlife enthusiast in the nation, the club is proudly marching on into its second decade of operation.

The Stable

Club Sugar

205 East Oakland Park Blvd., Oakland Park, FL 33334, (954) 565-4506 A neighborhood bar with a different theme every night, from drag shows and bingos, to bears and underwear.

Torpedo

2829 W. Broward Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312, (954) 587-2500. Your Dance Destination Till Dawn. Open Late for You To Devour The Night. Open 7 nights a week till 4 a.m.

Village Pub & Piano Bar

2301 SW 32nd Ave, Miami, Florida, 33145, (305) 443-7657. All the sweetness you’ll need in one club. Every Thursday “drag wars” with TP Lords. $5 house drinks & $4 Domestic beers all night.

Discotekka

950 NE 2nd Ave, Downtown Miami, Florida 33132,(305) 3509084. One of the best night clubs In Miami. Every Saturday the hottest DJ’s from the top performers. Drink Special Every Saturday

Johnny’s

2283 Wilton Dr. Wilton Manors, FL 33305, 754-200-5244 Villagepubwm.com

Miami 62 NE 14 Street Downtown Miami Florida (305) 640-8749. Open Wed. through Sun. The hottest men in the universe strip shows nightly from 6 p.m. sexy from wall to wall. Free entrance. Free parking. Free VIP rooms. Featuring the Hottest Male Dancers and The Best VIP ROOMS and always $5 Drinks. Full Lineup at ed at http://www.Facebook.com/JohnnysMiami

Georgie’s Alibi

2266 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL 33305, (954) 565-2526. Fort Lauderdale’s best & longest happy hour. Wednesdays $2 Domestics & $1 Schnapps after 9 p.m.

Johnny’s

1116 W. Broward Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312, (954) 5225931. Monday Dragon with TP Lords, Daisy D. and DJ Rob Sky Some of the hottest guys around with great happy hour drink specials. Bring all your friends to this sexy Bar.

The Manor

2345 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL 33305 (954) 626 0082 - Come Dine, Dance, Drink, Mingle and of course Relax. 2 for 1 happy hour Tues-Friday 3 to 9 p.m. Indoor/Outdoor Dining. Dance the night away Thursday through Sunday. Live music Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. Visit themanorcomplex.com

Matty’s on the Drive

2426 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors, FL 33305 (954) 564-1799. Matty’s is one of the few bars in Wilton Manors that’s just that –a bar. Wild Wednesday’s $.75 Drinks, 13 Drinks for less than $10. 5 p.m.

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

CHRISTMAS

What’s happening for the Holidays

By Brian Swinford

Broward County

Water Taxi Winter Festival of Lights: Bring the whole family in December for an amazing spectacle of Holiday lights along the Intracoastal Waterway and New River. Board any Water Taxi after 5 p.m. and you can see the lights all night for only $13. Water Taxis also stop at popular shopping destinations including the Galleria Mall (Stop 2) and Las Olas Boulevard (Stop 9) so you can enjoy a night out and some last minute shopping at the same time! Call 954-467-6677. Holiday Fantasy of Lights: The Holiday Fantasy of Lights will be at Tradeswind Park between 6-10p.m., Mon-Wed. This event will only cost you $10 per car, ThursSun: $13 per car; $35 buses; 3-D Experience $3 for 3 pairs of glasses. Three miles of giant animated holiday displays and illuminated trees, larger than ever blending the favorites of the past and the excitement of new creations by Brandano Displays. Tradewinds Park will again be a fantasy of color, lights and design this holiday season. Through the generous efforts of Alzheimer’s Family Center and Brandano Displays, Broward County Parks Department and the city of Coconut Creek. Call Steve Klein at 954-971-7155. Light Up Lauderdale, Downtown Fort Lauderdale: Light Up Lauderdale is a ten week celebration of glittering holiday lights and holiday garland presented

by Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale and the City of Fort Lauderdale. This event takes place through Jan 14. Thousands of lights will be displayed along the Riverwalk Park and other public areas. Huizenga Plaza, the Stranahan House, the Historic District, Broward Center for the Performing Arts and Esplanade Park will be decorated with lights, displays and festive decor. Visit Goriverwalk. com

in his Gingerbread Forest of lights, a food court, & vendor tents for last-minute holiday shopping! The icing on the cake will be 1 hour of falling snow on Dec. 21 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Peacock Park. Visit Coconutgrovecandycanevillage.com

Miami-Dade County Movies on the Plaza: A Christmas Story: Brickell World Plaza presents Movies on the Plaza featuring A Christmas Story, the 1983 holiday classic on Dec. 21 7p at Brickell World Plaza. Santa will make a special appearance from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Take your own photographs with Santa for free. Movies on the Plaza are a free, family-friendly event sponsored by Brickell World Plaza each month. Parking is free in the surface lot. Chair rentals are available. Call 305- 358-9807.

Coconut Grove Candy Cane Village: Families will marvel at the winter candy land featuring a 40-ft tall Cupcake Nutcracker with his giant cupcake & matching ice cream cone at the center of the festival! Plus, there will be 20 carnival rides, an “ice” skating rink with a 30-ft tall Gingerbread Man and his two Candy Canes overseeing the action! There’ll also be Santa

December 19, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com

December 19, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ SouthFloridaGayNews.com