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Compiled by Nicole Wiesenthal

Berlin Grindr Users Angry Over Chats Streamed Live for ‘Art’ [Edge Media] Life may imitate art, but some angry Grindr users in Berlin are taking legal action to have it stopped.

For the next two weeks, Dutch gay artist Dries Verhoeven is sitting in a glass-walled box and having his live, unedited Grindr conversations stream live, calling it art.

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Gay Star News reports the exhibit, titled “Wanna Play?” will feature Verhoeven recruiting a steady flow of men into his glass box for non-sexual activities. They’ll play chess, share a meal, or shave each others beards, the artist explained.

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GOP members of Congress have endorsed same-sex marriage.

Two openly gay GOP candidates are hoping to win House seats in Massachusetts and California. On the other flank, conservative Republicans in Congress have introduced legislation seeking to protect states from being forced to recognize samesex marriages.

CA First State to Ban ‘Gay Panic Defense’ in Court [Edge Media] Time to hang up the excuses, gay bashers.

California became the first U.S. state to ban the “gay panic defense” that defendants have successfully used in court to get out of murdering or assaulting the LGBT community.

Gay Star News reports that on Sept. 27, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that eliminates the excuse that someone was “panicked” into harming a gay or trans person in the heat of passion because of their sexual

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orientation or gender identity.

Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur said on Sept. 29 that this defense was, “a homophobic and transphobic ploy that blames the victims of horrific acts of violence for the crimes committed against them. It has no place in California’s legal system, and we applaud Gov. Brown for signing this groundbreaking, first-in-the-nation legislation.”

Volume 1 • Issue 5

October 8, 2014

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Gay Marriage Debate Splinters Republican Party Into 3 Groups [AP] NEW YORK — Same-sex marriage cases are cascading through the federal courts, and Republican politicians are finding themselves split into three camps.

There’s a small but growing number in favor of legalizing gay marriage. There’s a hard-core faction that continues to denounce it. And there’s a sizable group in between that seems to wish the issue would disappear.

At one end of the spectrum, at least eight

October 8, 2014 • Volume 5 • Issue 41 2520 N. Dixie Highway • Wilton Manors, FL 33305

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Associated Press

Wilton Manor Candidates Face Off In Debate

By Christiana Lilly

Elections are coming up in November, and three neighborhood associations worked together to bring the city’s 10 candidates for mayor and commissioner for a forum.

Hagen Park’s community center was filled to the brim, with every seat taken and others sitting against the wall to hear the candidates share their plans to improve Wilton Manors.

The forum was organized by the Wilton Manors East Neighborhood Association, Central Area Neighborhood Association of Wilton Manors, and the Westside Association of Wilton Manors.

Michael d’Oliveira of The Pelican moderated the forum, organized by members of the three neighborhood associated in Wilton Manors. Each candidate had a one-minute opening statement, answered five questions with two minutes each, followed by a two-minute closing statement. They did not have access to questions beforehand and were not allowed to use their cell phones.

1. Now that the police department is fully staffed, has implemented 12-hour shifts and is funded for license plate recognition system, what is your plan to proactively prevent crime, improve public safety (including homelessness

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issues), and enforce the city code and why will your plan work?

A common consensus among the candidates was community policing and bike patrols. Lillie Harris, who has more than 25 years of law enforcement experience in Miami, noted that she already implemented a program in Miami two decades ago.

“I understand this job,” she said. Uniquely, Doug Blevin said as mayor he would want to participate in a ride along with police officers to understand their job better.

Christopher Warnig admitted to having a run in with the police in Pennsylvania and Wilton Manors, but that helped him respect the abilities of the police force. He wants to promote community policing and more community events for residents to get to know officers, an idea that Naomi Ruth Parker also suggested. Sal Torre, president of the Westside Association of Wilton Manors, said that bike patrols have been working well in his part of the city. Boyd Corbin said he wants working cameras in Colohatchee Park, which he called a “sex park.”

As for the homeless, there were various suggestions. Scott Newman admitted that the city’s homeless problem is not a one-day fix and that he would like to work with Broward County and the state to get them off the streets and into a decent home. Blevin suggested building an incentive for the homeless to move into other Continued on page 7

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news highlight Did Republican Ellyn Bogdanoff Fudge Her Support for Gay Marriage?

Jason Parsley This week the gay rights group Palm Beach County Human Rights Council caused a bit of a stir when they endorsed Republican Ellyn Bogdanoff over Democrat Maria Sachs for the Florida Senate. Sachs has been a long supporter of gay rights while LGBT activists are split over Bogdanoff.

In a recent Sun Sentinel story Bogdanoff said she has long supported gay marriage.

“Bogdanoff said she’s long held her view,” wrote the Sentinel. “She said she didn’t remember if she’d ever stated it publicly before, but said she told anyone who asked.”

Except there’s one problem with that.

SFGN asked her in May and June of 2012 if she supported gay marriage. She ignored both emails. So it appears she didn’t tell everyone who asked.

Bogdanoff also told the Sentinel that she voted against the 2008 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Florida.

“I can respectfully disagree with some of the members of my party on that issue,” she said. “I don’t believe that it’s government’s

Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff role to determine, I don’t. Here’s the thing: People either choose to get married or choose not to get married if they want to be together. I have a lot of friends who are together as couples and have children together and have not necessarily have had the privilege of getting married.”

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News Briefs Compiled by SFGN Staff

Kristi House to Expand Services to Boys, Gay Youth [AP] MIAMI — A Miami organization that helps victims of sex trafficking is one of four nationwide to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Kristi House will receive $450,000 over three years to add a community mentoring program and expand services to boys, transgender and questioning youth.

Kristi House operates a drop in center where children receive services to help them escape sexual exploitation. Services include support groups, education, therapy and recreational programs to help exploited girls between the ages of 11 and 10-years-old.

Under the new DOJ grant, the organization will recruit and train community mentors; and provide an array of support services to empower girls, boys, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth to move past their experiences with victimization.

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illsborough Amends HRO, Proceeds With Registry Formation

[Watermark] Tampa – With a unanimous vote, Hillsborough County Commissioners passed a law prohibiting workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The law, which became effective immediately, re-establishes protections that were eliminated in the 1990s, when that former commission repealed amendments to its human rights ordinance protecting the gay community.

“There’s been a cultural and political shift,” said Commissioner Kevin Beckner, who pushed for the HRO amendment. “I think people are beginning to realize the importance of making sure everyone is treated equally and fairly.”

members to follow the voice of the Lord.

As they spoke, the 21,000 in attendance at the conference center in Salt Lake City read English subtitles on big screens. Thousands of people watching the live broadcast at home heard a dubbed English version. Leaders with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have in the past given speeches in English, no matter their native language.

The comments about gay marriage came from Dallin H. Oaks of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve, who said that the strong tide legalizing same-sex marriage is among current world values that challenge Mormon beliefs. He told Latter-day Saints “we must not surrender our positions or our values” but then spent considerable time preaching the value in being kind and understanding of others with different beliefs.

“Though we disagree, we should not be disagreeable,” Oaks said.

“Our stands and communications on controversial topics should not be contentious.”

The church’s stance on homosexuality has softened in recent years, but this is third consecutive conference in which leaders have said marriage should be limited to a man and a woman, as God created.

separate announcements hours apart.

The departures came a week after the attorney general’s office identified eight ex-employees as having sent or received pornographic images or videos. All eight men, who also include state police Commissioner Frank Noonan, worked under Corbett while he was the state’s elected attorney general from 2005 to 2011.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office says it discovered hundreds of pornographic emails during its review of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse prosecution.

Church To Hear Methodist Appeal Over Gay Wedding

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nti-Gay Marriage Speeches Given At Mormon Conference

[AP] SALT LAKE CITY — On a day when two Mormon leaders made history by delivering speeches in foreign languages, the church reiterated its opposition to gay marriage while urging members to be gracious toward those who believe differently.

The first non-English speech in the 184-year history of the church’s biannual general conference came in Cantonese by Chi Hong “Sam” Wong of Hong Kong. He spoke of the importance of people in local congregations working together to help those in need. The second speech came several hours later in the afternoon session in Spanish from Eduardo Gavarret of Uruguay, who urged

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[AP] PHILADELPHIA — The Methodist church’s highest court will decide later this month whether a minister who officiated his gay son’s wedding can keep his pastoral credentials.

The Rev. Frank Schaefer was defrocked following a church trial in southeastern Pennsylvania last year, then re-instated by an appeals panel in June. That decision was appealed to the Judicial Council, the church’s highest court.

The nine-member panel said on the Methodist Church’s website that it will hear oral arguments in the case Oct. 22 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Officials Resign in Porn Office Emails Case Two

[AP] Two top state officials resigned Thursday in the growing scandal surrounding office emails containing pornography in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office.

Gov. Tom Corbett disclosed the resignations of Environmental Protection Secretary Christopher Abruzzo and Glenn Parno, a top lawyer in the Department of Environmental Protection, in

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SouthFloridaGayNews

C

alifornia First State to Ban ‘Gay Panic Defense’ in Court

[Edge Media] Time to hang up the excuses, gay bashers.

California became the first U.S. state to ban the “gay panic defense” that defendants have successfully used in court to get out of murdering or assaulting the LGBT community.

Gay Star News reports that on Sept. 27, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that eliminates the excuse that someone was “panicked” into harming a gay or trans person in the heat of passion because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur said on Sept. 29 that this defense was, “a homophobic and transphobic ploy that blames the victims of horrific acts of violence for the crimes committed against them. It has no place in California’s legal system, and we applaud Gov. Brown for signing this groundbreaking, first-in-the-nation legislation.”

news briefs

Texas Rep. Compares Gay Marriage to Cancer [Edge Media] Texas’ GOP state representative recently compared gay marriage to cancer, and said that gay people shouldn’t marry because they can’t have children, comparing it to the losing streak of the Phoenix Suns -- but one that would never end.

Lone Star Q reports that at a recent forum “Texas v. Same-Sex Marriage,” hosted by the Texas Tribune in Austin, five panelists debated the issue of gay marriage. Among them were conservative Republican state Rep. Matt Krause; openly LGBT Democratic state Rep. Mary Gonzalez; promarriage equality GOP political strategist Mark McKinnon; Daniel McNeel Lane Jr., an attorney for same-sex couples challenging Texas’ marriage bans; and Jonathan Saenz, president of the anti-

gay group Texas Values.

Krause, a 34-year-old attorney from Tarrant County’s District 93 who is set to begin his second two-year term in the Legislature, defended a legal brief he and 62 other GOP legislators supported that compared same-sex marriage to incest and pedophilia. Here’s what he had to say when the moderator asked him to explain: “I don’t think any of the 63 of us thought, if this gets struck down, pedophiles are going to run our streets,” said Krause. “That’s not what we were saying, but I do think the important, fundamental part of that is that once you take the structures off marriage, between one man and one woman in the context of raising children, then you get into, what’s the limiting principle with marriage?”

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news local

LGBT Real Estate Conference Next Week Progress Has Been Made But More Is Needed Michael d’Oliveira

Realtor Jeff Berger says housing discrimination against LGBT individuals has decreased dramatically. There’s still some progress to be made though, which is one of the reasons why he founded the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals [NAGLREP] in 2007.

“I wouldn’t say there’s widespread discrimination in the marketplace but there are concerns . . . just from time to time people not wanting to sell their home to same sex couples,” said Berger about the discrimination that still exists, “It’s usually more subtle. With marriage equality sweeping the nation, acceptance is becoming more mainstream.” His organization boasts support from national corporations such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Coldwell Banker.

“There’s really a great level of acceptance, personally and corporately.”

A 2013 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development states that gay and lesbian couples are much less likely to get a response to an inquiry about housing than heterosexual couples. “The primary form of adverse treatment is that samesex couples receive significantly fewer responses to email inquiries about advertised units than heterosexual couples,” reads part of the study.

Along with countering discrimination, Berger also founded NAGLREP to better serve the LGBT community when it comes to issues of housing. Founded in 2007, NAGLREP has about 800 members nationwide with close to about 75 here in South Florida, from Palm Beach to the Keys. “About 15 percent of our membership

is gay friendly and straight. We’re very active in the Keys but Fort Lauderdale would have the highest concentration.”

Speakers and industry leaders focused on the LGBT housing market will provide information and strategies on reaching out to the LGBT community during the 2014 National LGBT Real Estate Conference – October 14 to 16 at the Embassy Suites on 17th Street Causeway in Fort Lauderdale.

“A lot of the conference and a lot of breakout sessions focus on marketing and building your brand. While there are some advocacy things going on, it’s really a business conference,” said Berger.

Berger said many LGBT couples and individuals are looking for a realtor who is comfortable with their relationship and someone who can find them a home in close proximity to other LGBT individuals.

“I believe that’s why people choose a NAGLREP member.”

That’s where the differences between LGBT and heterosexual couples end though, said Berk Boge, a realtor in the Miami area. “They’re really just people, like everybody else. They’re only different because they’re different individuals.

Some are easy to deal with, some are hard to deal with.”

Boge, one of the gay friendly members of NAGLREP, said LGBT couples and individuals are looking for the same things as their counterparts, depending on the individual or couple: close proximity to great restaurants and shopping, sometimes a view of the ocean or Intracoastal and sometimes schools, for those who have children from previous marriages. “I really can’t tell the difference.”

Visit naglrep.com/conference2014 to register for the 2014 National LGBT Real Estate Conference.

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SouthFloridaGayNews

news national

October Surprise!

BREAKING NEWS The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday afternoon overturned the gay marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada. The ruling will also affect Alaska, Arizona, and Montana.

Supreme Court denies gay marriage appeals making it legal in at least 5 new states

By Lisa Keen Keen News Service

In a surprise development, the U.S. Supreme Court today announced it would not accept for review any of the seven appeals on samesex marriage bans from five states. The action means that the stays placed on lower court decisions in all five states –decisions that struck down bans on marriage for same-sex couples— are immediately lifted, making way for lower courts to issue orders requiring the states to stop enforcing their bans and begin issuing marriage licenses.

The action also means that six other states in the same federal circuits as the five states which had appeals before the high court will have to abide by the federal appeals court rulings in those circuits or take the unusual tact of asking their circuits for full bench review of their cases.

A three-judge panel in all three circuits –the Fourth, Seventh, and Tenth—struck down the bans on marriage for same-sex couples.

That means that very soon, same-sex couples will likely be able to marry in 30 states plus the District of Columbia, tipping the balance in favor of marriage equality, from the previous 19 states and D.C. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the Tenth Circuit issued an order just minutes after the Supreme Court’s announcement was made public, lifting the stay in that state and alerting clerks in Utah that they should immediately abide by its ruling that the ban is unconstitutional. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers implied the Supreme Court announcement denying review of the cases was tantamount to a ruling.

“We have consistently maintained that we will abide by the Supreme Court’s determination on the constitutionality of marriage laws,” said Suthers in a press release. “By choosing not to take up the matter, the court has left the 10th Circuit ruling in place.” He said Colorado clerks “must begin issuing marriage licenses to all same-sex couples” soon after the Tenth Circuit issued its order.

In Wisconsin, Republican Governor Scott Walker told reporters on his re-election campaign trail that the issue is “resolved” and there would be no further attempts to defend

the state ban; Dane County announced it would issue licenses to same-sex couples immediately.

The Indiana attorney general posted a statement indicating the state would begin issuing license “soon.”

The Fourth Circuit issued its order mandating that states stop enforcing the bans at 1 p.m.

EDT Monday. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, who has opposed that state’s ban, issued a press release saying that same-sex couples could begin obtaining marriage licenses as soon as that order is issued.

“Local clerks are receiving guidance and forms necessary to begin performing marriages today,” said Herring’s office, “and the Attorney General’s Office is working with the Governor’s Office and state agencies to implement any needed changes in light of this action.”

“A new day has dawned, and the rights guaranteed by our Constitution are shining through,” said Herring in a press release Monday morning shortly after the Supreme Court issued its “Orders List” indicating that the seven appeals –including three from Virginia—were being denied.

“This is a tremendous moment in Virginia history,” said Herring. “We will continue to fight discrimination wherever we find it, but today, we celebrate a moment when we move closer to fulfilling the promise of equality ignited centuries ago in Virginia, and so central to the American experience.”

Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which has been involved in the Tenth Circuit case out of Utah, said NCLR is “thrilled.”

“This is a huge step forward for Utah and the entire country,” said Minter. “We are hopeful that the other cases pending across the country will also vindicate the freedom to marry, so that all couples, no matter where they travel or live, will be treated as equal citizens and have the same basic security and protections for their families that other Americans enjoy.”

The Supreme Court’s announcement does not legally affect the remaining 20 states, but it could give courts in those other states and circuits

some pause before upholding similar bans in those states and circuits. Some experts say they expect the Supreme Court will almost certainly take up an appeal should a federal appeals court rule such bans to be constitutional.

Prominent constitutional law scholar Laurence Tribe of Harvard University, who argued against bans on sodomy in the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick case, said “As soon as a solid split emerges, I fully expect the Court to grant [review],” said Tribe. “I’d watch the Sixth Circuit if I were you.”

A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit heard oral arguments August 6 in six marriage equality lawsuits from four states: Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. The panel has yet to issue its opinion, but questions from two of the three judges during the argument gave repeated voice to various justifications for the bans.

Jon Davidson, national legal director for Lambda Legal, which is involved in a number of marriage equality cases, agrees that the Supreme Court will likely take a circuit decision from the Sixth or Fifth circuits if they conflict with the decisions rendered by the Fourth, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits. But he said he doesn’t think the high court would consider an appeal from a future circuit, such as the Ninth, which might agree with the previous circuits.

Davidson said there is a way that the six states in the Fourth, Seventh, and Tenth circuits --who were not part of Monday’s batch of seven cases-- could try to avoid or delay allowing same-sex couples to marry in those states.

He said a state, such as South Carolina, could try and appeal an existing case to the full circuit bench in hopes of getting a different decision than that issued by the circuit’s threejudge panel. That seems like a long shot but one that may have political benefits for governors or attorneys general in more conservative states.

Mary Bonauto, civil rights director for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said she thinks the Supreme Court’s announcement today sends “a powerful signal to the many other courts considering the issue that there is no reason to delay and perpetuate the harms to same-sex couples around the nation.” Bonauto

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won the landmark case in Massachusetts that led to the first state allowing same-sex couples to marry in 2004; she also led the successful effort to overturn a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act last year.

Prior to Monday’s announcement, marriage equality was legal in 19 states plus D.C. Under this latest action, marriage equality will now be the law in Colorado, Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Assuming no state attempts to get a different decision from their circuit, marriage equality will likely go into effect soon in Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming. If all 11 are added, the tally will be 30 states plus D.C. with marriage equality.

“We obviously need to get to a national resolution, so the magic number is 50 states plus,” said GLAD’s Bonauto, “not 30.”

Openly gay U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) called the Supreme Court announcement Monday a “huge victory.”

“Love is love, family is family, and discriminating against anyone’s love, against anyone’s family, is not only wrong, it’s unconstitutional,” said Baldwin, in a press release. This is a huge step forward for our entire country being a place where every family’s love and commitment can be recognized and respected under the law.”

Monday’s announcement came by way of a routine, but highly anticipated “Orders List” on the first official day of the Supreme Court’s 2014-15 session. As is typical, the document does not include any explanation for the petitions for appeal were not granted. In order to take a case, four justices must agree before the high court grants a petition for appeal. The fact that the justices did not take any of the seven cases means that at least six of the nine justices refused to hear the appeals that sought to determine whether the marriage bans were constitutional. The fact that six justices refused the appeals in these seven cases bodes well for marriage equality should the court later decide to hear an appeal from marriage equality supporters, should another circuit uphold the constitutionality of marriage bans.

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news analysis

A Closer Look at the Supreme Court’s Decision and Why it Was Such a Surprise Lyle Denniston

Reporter, SCOTUSblog

With not a single dependable hint of its own constitutional view of same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court in one fell swoop on Monday cleared the way for gays and lesbians to wed in a batch of new states — starting first in five more states, and probably adding six more in the coming weeks. If that happens in all eleven, it will mean that same-sex marriages would then be legal in thirty states and Washington, D.C. In seven one-line orders, released without explanation and with no report on how any Justice voted, the Court surprisingly refused to review any same-sex marriage case now before it and, in the process, prepared to lift a series of orders that had delayed such marriages while the issue remained in the Court. Almost no one had expected that to happen.

It may take a few weeks for the Court’s action to take effect in real-world terms, in the geographic areas where federal appeals courts have struck down bans in five states — the decisions that the Justices have now left intact. Because those appeals court rulings are binding on all federal courts in their regions, those decisions almost certainly dictate the outcome in six more states.

Here is the lineup, as of Monday (this could change if other federal appeals courts issue rulings in coming days or weeks): First, as a direct result of Monday’s action, same-sex marriages can occur when existing lower-court rulings against state bans go into effect in Virginia in the Fourth Circuit, Indiana and Wisconsin in the Seventh Circuit, and Oklahoma and Utah in the Tenth Circuit.

Second, such marriages can occur when the court of appeals rulings are implemented in federal district courts in three more states in the Fourth Circuit (North and South Carolina and West Virginia) and in three more states in the Tenth Circuit (Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming). The other states in the three circuits where bans have been struck down had

already permitted same-sex marriage, under new laws or court rulings (Illinois, Maryland, and New Mexico, which have been counted among the nineteen states in that category).

Third, four other circuits — the Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, and Eleventh — are currently considering the constitutionality of same-sex marriages. Of those, the Ninth Circuit — which had earlier struck down California’s famous “Proposition 8” ban and uses a very rigorous test of laws against gay equality — is considered most likely to strike down state bans. If that happens, it would add five more states to the marriages-allowed column (Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada), which would bring the national total to thirty-five.

The reaction in those four circuits could depend upon how they interpret what the Supreme Court did on Monday.

If the Court is not likely to uphold any state ban, either on same-sex marriage in the first place or recognition of existing such marriage, lower courts may see good reason to fall in line. The Court’s actions, however, do not set any precedent, so lower courts are technically free to go ahead and decide as they otherwise would.

If they interpret the denials of review as providing no guidance whatsoever, then they would feel free to proceed without reading anything into what the Court has in mind.

It is very hard, however, to interpret the Justices’ actions as having no meaning. Here are the reasons why the denial orders were such a surprise: First, for all seven petitions, both sides had urged the Court to grant review — a rare thing, and one that almost never fails to assure review.

Second, last year the Court had agreed to decide on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, but wound up not deciding that issue because of a procedural defect in the appeal in

that case (involving California’s “Proposition 8”). That was a sign that the Justices were prepared to confront the basic issue, at least at that time.

Third, during this year, the Court itself has three times blocked lower court rulings striking down state bans — an indication that the Justices did not want same-sex marriages to occur until they had weighed in on their constitutionality.

Fourth, the Court surely knew what the practical impact would be of turning aside all seven petitions — that is, the early implementation of same-sex marriages in a good many more states, without the Court ever having ruled on the core question and, in fact, with the Court having never said anything, one way or the other, on that basic issue.

Fifth, all of the new cases test the scope of the Court’s reasoning last year in striking down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. That decision, in the case of United States v. Windsor, did not deal with the core issue of same-sex marriage, but it ruled strongly in favor of equality in federal programs for samesex couples who already were legally married under state law. In almost all of the nearly unanimous flow of lower court decisions since then striking down state bans, the judges have relied upon Windsor‘s rationale. By denying

review Monday, the Court has not questioned that use of the Windsor decision.

Sixth, four Justices filed vigorous dissents in the Windsor case, and their votes would have been enough to grant review in any new case brought to it. If they, in fact, did vote to grant, that was not noted on the orders. Moreover, without some assurance of getting a fifth vote when the issue was actually decided, they may have decided to hold off, at least for the time being.

Whatever happens in the near term will have some confusion and a great deal of uncertainty, especially for same-sex couples who now go ahead and get married, but that would not compare to the confusion that would arise if the Court at some point in the future were to grant review of a case and uphold a ban on same-sex marriage. What would happen in the states where marriage had become available, and what would happen to those who married based on Monday’s actions and their aftermath?

Presumably, officials in states that wanted to reinstate bans could apply to reopen closed cases, based on the new authority that the Supreme Court, in such event, had provided.

That might well be an invitation to legal chaos.

Reprinted with permission from SCOTUSblog.

What Gay-Marriage Court Action Means For Florida Associated Press

WHAT HAPPENS IN FLORIDA? That’s not clear yet. Florida’s existing ban on same-sex marriages is not directly affected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s move — the high court wasn’t dealing with any cases from Florida. This year, several Florida circuit judges as well as U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle have struck down the gaymarriage ban that was adopted by the state’s voters in 2008.

But same-sex marriages have not been allowed to proceed because the judges in those cases have agreed to stay their ruling pending appeals. Hinkle’s ruling states that any stay would remain in place 90 days after a decision was made in the cases that were under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office said she was “reviewing the impact” of Monday’s decision.

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ACLU OF FLORIDA WANTS STAY LIFTED The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida said Monday that it will file a request asking that Hinkle lift his stay in the federal lawsuit. That lawsuit consolidates two cases involving 22 people, including several couples married in other states who asked for Florida to recognize their marriages. The lawsuit was filed against state officials, including Gov. Rick Scott. Florida has appealed the ruling to a federal appeals court in Atlanta.

soflagaynews //

SouthFloridaGayNews

GROUPS CALL ON FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL TO DROP APPEALS Republican Pam Bondi has defended the state in the ongoing lawsuits. She has previously said that one of the reasons she has appealed the cases is that she wanted the U.S. Supreme Court to make a decision that would apply uniformly to all states.

Groups such as Equality Florida and George Sheldon, Bondi’s Democratic opponent in the November election, called on her to drop her appeals in the wake of the Supreme Court action.

“She has got to decide if she is going to fight the tide of history,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

news local

Study Shows Anti-Gay Laws Contribute to Poverty in LGBT Community Sasha Razumikhin

The right to marry is but a small piece of LGBT equality, and new research is now illuminating just how rampant inequality is causing major hurdles to economic wellbeing for LGBT people.

The research, co-authored by the ubiquitous intelligencia outfit Movement Advancement Project (MAP) and the Center for American Progress (CAP) points out that anti-LGBT laws “contribute to significantly higher rates of poverty among LGBT Americans and create unfair financial penalties in the form of higher taxes, reduced wages and Social Security income, increased healthcare costs,” according to a release. You can read Paying an Unfair Price: The Financial Penalty for Being LGBT in America at lgbtmap.org/unfair-price.

“Unfair laws deliver a one-two punch.

They both drive poverty within the LGBT community and then hit people when they are down,” said Ineke Mushovic, MAP’s executive director. “While families with means might be able to withstand the costs of extra taxation or the unfair denial of Social Security benefits, for an alreadystruggling family these financial penalties can mean the difference between getting by and getting evicted. Anti-LGBT laws do the most harm to the most vulnerable in the LGBT community, including those who are barely making ends meet, families with children, older adults, and people of color.”

According to released materials from MAP and CAP, here are three main ways laws are failing to protect LGBT people, or at least engender equality for them at the financial level: Lack of protection from discrimination means that LGBT people can be fired, denied housing and credit, and refused medically necessary healthcare simply because they are LGBT. The financial penalty: LGBT people can struggle to find work, make less on the job, and have higher housing and medical costs than their non-LGBT peers.

Refusal to recognize LGBT families means that LGBT families are denied many of the same benefits afforded to non-LGBT

families when it comes to health insurance, taxes, vital safety-net programs, and retirement planning.

The financial penalty: LGBT families pay more for health insurance, taxes, and legal assistance, and may be unable to access essential protections for their families in times of crisis.

Failure to adequately protect LGBT students means that LGBT people and their families often face a hostile, unsafe, and unwelcoming environment in local schools, as well as discrimination in accessing financial aid and other support.

The financial penalty: LGBT youth are more likely to perform poorly in school and to face challenges pursuing postsecondary educational opportunities, as can youth with LGBT parents. This, in turn, can reduce their earnings over time, as well as their chances of having successful jobs and careers.

“Imagine losing your job or your home simply because of who you are or whom you love. Imagine having to choose between paying the rent and finding legal help so you can establish parenting rights for the child you have been raising from birth,” said Laura E. Durso, director of LGBT Progress at CAP. “These are just a couple of the added costs that are harming the economic security of LGBT people across the country.

It is unfair and un-American that LGBT people are penalized because of who they are, and it has real and profound effects on their ability to stay out of poverty and provide for their families.”

Can things get better? Sure. Here are a few (simple) recommendations from the researchers: Instituting basic nondiscrimination protections at the federal and state level Allowing same-sex couples to marry in all states Allowing LGBT parents to form legal ties with the children they are raising Protecting students from discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

For more information, go to lgbtmap.org. soflagaynews //

SouthFloridaGayNews // SFGN.com //

10.8.2014 //

9

community announcement … AND THE 2014 “PINK FLAMINGO AWARDS” GO TO …

A performance artist spray painted flamingoes onto the stage backdrop as nearly 300 guests flocked to the 2nd Annual “Pink Flamingo Awards” ceremony, which honored the community’s favorites in 21 hospitality-

related categories and benefited the LGBT Visitor Center in Miami Beach.

Determined by online voting of nearly 5,000 South Florida residents and tourists, pink flamingo statues were awarded to:

Favorite Hotel Resort

The Standard Spa Miami Beach

Favorite DJ

Favorite Boutique Hotel

DJ Citizen Jane

Favorite Restaurant – Fine Dining

Nathan Smith from Twist

Hôtel Gaythering The Forge

Favorite Restaurant – Casual

Palace South Beach

Favorite Bartender Favorite Promoter

Edison Farrow

Favorite Media Personality

Favorite Chef

Craig Stevens

Michelle Bernstein Favorite Fundraising Event

One Day AIDS Walk Miami

Favorite Miami Attraction

Pérez Art Museum

Favorite Retail Store

Favorite Fundraising Event

Weekend or Longer Miami Beach Gay Pride

Macy’s

Favorite Gym

Equinox

Favorite Spa

Favorite Drag Queen

The Standard Spa Miami Beach

Adora

Favorite Nonprofit Organization

Favorite Singer/Band

Karina Iglesias

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Favorite Nightlife Destination

Favorite Local Hero

Twist

Michael Gongora

Favorite Dance Club

Score

The awards were presented at a reception and dinner party on Tuesday, September 23, at the Miami Beach Convention Center with celebrity stand-up comedian ANT emceeing the energetic event. In addition to the awards ceremony, the event included an open bar cocktail reception, a silent auction and a three-course seated dinner.

A live, cabaret-style routine featured performances from Lori Lynch, executive director of the LGBT Visitor Center, and her drag queen back-up dancers, the “Flamingettes,” (aka The Palace Divas) Tiffany Fantasia, Noel Leon, Tlo Ivy and Missy Meyakie LePaige.

Lynch and the Flamingettes opened the awards ceremony with

“Everything’s All PinkCenter Flamingos,” a send-up LGBT Visitor of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from the musical presents: “Gypsy.” To close the ceremony, Lynch led the audience in “I Am What I Am” from “La

Cage Aux Folles,” which transitioned into a heart-pumping disco rendition delivered by 50 members of the Miami Gay Men’s Chorus.

Proceeds from the “Pink Flamingo Awards” benefit the LGBT Visitor Center which welcomes thousands of international visitors throughout the year and serves as a major hub of activity for the local community.

The Visitor 23rd, Center7pm-10pm is funded September and operated by the MDGLCC Miami Beach Convention Center Foundation, Inc., the non-profit foundation of the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Cast your votes and purchase tickets at pinkflamingoawards.com

For more information about the LGBT Visitor’s Center, visit the venue at 1130 Washington Avenue, First Floor North, Miami Beach, FL 33139 or click www.gogaymiami.com, email lori@gogaymiami.com, or call 305-397-8914.

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9/30/14 2:25 PM

special section matthew shepard

Shepard’s legacy continues on in online safe haven designed for other LGBT youth

Christiana Lilly For a decade now, the memory of Matthew Shepard has carried on in the form of an online safe haven.

“LGBT youth in rural America, like Matt, really didn’t have the gathering spaces and opportunities to build relationships and connect with other queer youth that kids in a more urban setting were privileged to have,” said Robin Wood, deputy director of The Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Thus, Matthew’s Place was born, named for the 22-year-old gay man who was murdered in 1998 in Laramie, WY. Two men took him out to a remote field, tied him to a fence, and beat him close to death. The next morning, a passerby came upon his body and initially mistook him for a scarecrow, he was beaten so badly.

For 16 years, the foundation has worked to erase hate and promote a world of

understanding and compassion, Wood said, and Matthew’s Place is part of the puzzle. While some LGBT youth are without community centers with youth programming and social spaces for them, the online forum does just that.

Originally starting as a simple message board, it’s since evolved to a site filled with stories from older LGBT people with tips and anecdotes about growing up gay as well as a dozen bloggers who keep a regular online diary.

With technology constantly changing for youth, the site has kept up to continue to provide a safe place for people to access information.

Last year, there were more than 115,000 unique visitors to Matthew’s Place from the United States and 180 countries, including typically anti-gay places like Uganda, Qatar,

Iran, and Jamaica. While the site is geared mainly to teens and young adults, people in their 60s have benefited from Matthew’s Place.

Bloggers and writers, led by journalist Christine Romero, cover topics such as coming out to your parents, questions about gender transition, discussing your sexuality during job interviews, and other items regarding becoming a successful LGBT adult. Right now, they are doing a series on asexuality.

Jaime Kruse, a transgender man studying law, runs his blog “Sky’s the Limit” and has been especially active in posting and commenting on different topics, such as a step-by-step guide on how to change your gender identity on Facebook after the social networking site expanded to more than 50 options earlier this year.

Eventually, the team behind Matthew’s Place would like to add a discussion board to the site,

Matthew Shepard His Cultural Impact

but with youngsters on the site, there are safety concerns to keep them safe from bullies and predators. They’re hoping to launch that within the next few years.

“These kids are the same age that Matt was when he was killed, and being able to show that they’re living healthy, fulfilled lives is really just an important part of ensuring that his legacy is remembered,” Wood said.

Matthew’s Place can be found online at MatthewsPlace.com.

For more information about the work the foundation does, visit MatthewShepard.org.

Matthew Shepard was never aware of the almost “Godlike” impression that he left on the LGBT community.

David-Elijah Nahmod In honor of the 16th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s passing, SFGN takes a look back upon some the books, plays and films that have attempted to explain his unique place in history.

The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie and a World Transformed, by Judy Shepard (Hudson Street Press, 2010) To many, Matthew Shepard is an almost Godlike figure, a role that Shepard never intended to play. He had no idea, as he lay in his hospital bed dying, that his short life and horrific death was helping to change the way LGBT people were viewed in society.

Unlike Harvey Milk (1930-1978), the first openly gay elected official in history, Matt Shepard never intended to change the course of history. In “The Meaning of Matthew,” Matt’s mom Judy Shepard, a sweet, simple yet very insightful woman recalls her initial reaction to the media sensation around her son’s death, which began during that harrowing week he spent in a coma.

“Who do they think we are, Elton John?” Judy wondered in astonishment.

Throughout the book Shepard recalls her son as a sweet if somewhat troubled kid who battled depression. She writes honestly of the fact that he was hardly the saint the media often paints him out to be. But he was her son, and she loved him.

The book recounts Matthew’s childhood, the events leading up to his bashing, and Judy’s own realization that, whether she liked it or not, her son had become an icon.

With a matter-of-fact-honesty, Judy attempts to understand and explain why this particular

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gay bashing touched a nerve, and her own place as an LGBT spokesperson through the Matthew Shepard Foundation. You can’t get closer to the real story than Judy Shepard’s “The Meaning of Matthew.” The book remains available at Amazon in Kindle, print and audiobook editions.

“The Laramie Project” (2002) HBO’s film of the same named play, written and directed by Moises Kaufman, who co-wrote the play with other members of the Tectonic Theater Project. The play and the film offer a dramatization of the aftermath of Shepard’s death upon the town of Laramie, which was transformed by the attention his murder shined upon it. “The Laramie Project” script was based on interviews with a variety of Laramie residents.

Shepard himself does not appear in “The Laramie Project,” yet his spirit hovers over the play, and the town, to this very day. “The Laramie Project” remains available on DVD at Amazon. The original play, which was first performed in 2000, continues to be used as a teaching tool to educate the public about homophobia. It can also be purchased at Amazon, albeit in book form.

The Matthew Shepard Foundation assists in making the play available to schools--see the Laramie Project Support Link at the Foundation’s website.

“The Matthew Shepard Story” (2002) Sam Waterston and Stockard Channing (a vocal LGBT ally) star as Dennis and Judy Shepard, bereaved parents dealing with the loss of their son, the trial of his killers, and their own unexpected thrust into the spotlight. The drama focuses on the Shepards as they struggle with whether or soflagaynews //

not to request the death penalty for the killers.

Originally aired as a TV movie and produced by movie star Goldie Hawn, “The Matthew Shepard” story is a riveting, heart wrenching drama about forgiveness.

“The Book of Matt” (2013) by Stephen Jimenez, Steerforth Press Many people were appalled by journalist Jimenez’ book, while others applauded it for telling what they called “the rest of the story”.

After years of research and interviews with people who knew Matt and his killers, Jimenez concluded that Shepard and Aaron McKinney, one of the killers, had been lovers and meth dealers. The author claims that his book is a warning about the dangers of methamphetamines.

There is no mention of “The Book of Matt” at the website for The Matthew Shepard Foundation, which we suspect says it all.

Other depictions of Matthew Shepard: “October Mourning”

by Leslea Newman, a novel in verse about Shepard’s murder, published in 2012.

“Laramie Inside Out” Lesbian filmmaker Beverly Seckinger returns to her hometown of Laramie to see how Shepard’s murder affected the city where she grew up in the closet. The filmmaker talks to grieving Laramie residents who are working to make their city, and the world, a better place. She also confronts the late Fred Phelps and his anti-gay minions of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church in this 2004 documentary.

SouthFloridaGayNews

“Blood and Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard” An anthology published in 1999 by Painted Leaf Press. 75 poets offer their personal tributes to Shepard.

“American Triangle” (2001) Longtime collaborators Elton John and Bernie Taupin dedicated the song American Triangle, from the CD Songs From the West Coast, to the memory of Shepard.

“Laramie” (2001) Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray recorded this tribute to Shepard on her 2001 CD Stag.

“Matthew” (2004) Janis Ian, a 1960s teen pop star who has since come out as a lesbian, recorded her song Matthew in 2004. It’s on her CD Billie’s Bones.

“Jesus Is on the Wire” (2004) 1960s folk legends Peter Paul and Mary recorded Jesus on the Wire as one of their final tunes before Mary Travers succumbed to leukemia a few years later.

Titus: “Tommy’s Not Gay” (2001) In this gay themed episode of the dark sitcom Titus, Christopher Titus mention’s Shepard’s death after Tommy’s dad is gay bashed.

“The West Wing” The acclaimed Presidential drama included a story arc inspired by The Matthew Shepard Act, an extension of pre-existing hate crimes legislation which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009. The Act was first introduced in 2001.

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10.8.2014 // 13

special section matthew shepard

‘Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine’ Powerful documentary sheds new light on gay icon John Becker

Fort Lauderdale The Manor Complex October 23 St. Petersburg Metro LGBT Center October 24

Photo credit: Steven C De La Cruz

Orlando, FL The Abbey October 25 West Palm Beach The Improv October 26 Benefitting

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soflagaynews //

Ever since 1998, supporters of LGBT civil rights and human dignity have paused during the first week of October to reflect on Matthew Shepard — the 21-year-old Wyoming university student who was abducted, robbed, tortured, beaten within an inch of his life, tied to a fence, and left to die… all because he was gay. It was one of the most brutal and horrifying anti-gay hate crimes in American history, and it shocked the nation.

Shepard held on, alive but in a coma, for five more days before finally passing away on October 12, 1998. In a remarkable act of selfless compassion, Shepard’s parents intervened to spare his killers the death penalty; they received life sentences instead.

Judy and Dennis Shepard co-founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation to advance “social justice, diversity awareness and education, and equality” for LGBT people, and their work continues to this day.

That’s the Matthew Shepard story we all know. But “Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine,” a powerful documentary film currently making the festival circuit, aims to show a different side of Matt — not the martyred Matt, but the living Matt, the one his friends knew and loved. Director Michele Josue, herself a childhood friend of Shepard’s, writes: I was 19 when Matt died and his loss was devastating for me. It’s a hard thing to understand, but as his story became an international news event, my heartbreak and sense of loss only grew as my friend Matt was replaced by “Matthew Shepard,” an historic figure and icon that will forever be associated with unspeakable violence and hate. And as the media stripped my friend of his humanity, I made a promise to myself that when I was emotionally and artistically ready, I would share, with the world, who Matt really was — in the only way I knew how, through film.

Josue takes viewers on a journey across

SouthFloridaGayNews

the country and around the world, talking to family members, friends, teachers, and confidantes who were touched by Matt during his all-too-brief life. The portrait her film paints of Shepard is a refreshingly human one: we learn about the ups and downs of his family’s move to Saudi Arabia (for Dennis Shepard’s job), what life was like at the English-language school Matt’s dad’s company paid for him to attend, and discover that Shepard was beaten and raped during a high-school trip to Morocco. The assault left him profoundly traumatized, and through the eyes of his friends and parents, we learn about the depression, anxiety, and panic attacks he experienced afterwards, and the difficulties he encountered as he tried to recover emotionally from the experience while adjusting to college life at the same time.

The film pulls no emotional punches -Josue and her subjects are every bit as frank about Matt’s death and the impact it’s had on them as they are about their memories of his life. We weep with them as they ponder what Shepard might have experienced during his last moments of consciousness, we wonder with them about what his life would have been like had it not been so tragically cut short, we are given a window into their hearts as they struggle to incorporate the loss of their beloved Matt into the fabric of their lives.

“Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine” is a compelling documentary because it goes beyond the headlines to show Matthew Shepard as a human being. Even if you’ve followed Matt’s story from the beginning, it’s worth watching — no less than Judy and Dennis Shepard say the film taught them more about the person their son was.

Matthew Shepard isn’t just a victim of a hate crime or an icon of LGBT history. He was funny, kind, outgoing, and loyal — a son, a brother, and a friend.

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10.8.2014 // 15

special section ncod

National Coming Out Day October 11

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It was 26 years ago on October 11 that half a million people walked in the March on Washington a second time, fighting for lesbian and gay rights. On the anniversary of that day ever since, LGBT activists have celebrated National Coming Out Day to encourage acceptance and living an open life.

“In our continuing effort to raise awareness, we’ve expanded NCOD to an entire week during which we will use social media and HRC.org to feature people not only telling their stories of coming out, but also encouraging people to come out, and allies to support those who take this brave and life-affirming step,” said Elizabeth Halloran, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign.

Last year for the 25th anniversary, the HRC

themed the day “Coming Out Still Matters” and commemorated the anniversary of gay artist Keith Haring’s iconic artwork of a cartoon character coming out of the closet. This has become the official logo for National Coming Out Day. “We are also re-releasing our Keith Haring National Coming Out Day t-shirt featuring the artist’s iconic image of a person stepping out of a closet,” Halloran said.

Over the years, many celebrities both gay and straight have gotten involved with National Coming Out Day — to name a few, in 1991 Geraldo Rivera hosted a television program with openly gay actors and politicians, Melissa Etheridge produced a radio PSA, a benefit CD was released in 2002 with the likes of K.D. Lang, Sarah McLachlan, Queen and more.

For straight allies, National Coming Out Day is a day that they can let everyone know that they support their gay brothers and sisters. The HRC has a coming out guide for both gay people and allies (http://bit.ly/1CRW8ne).

SouthFloridaGayNews

special section national coming out day

Out Before Stonewall

David-Elijah Nahmod

In commemoration of National Coming Out Day, (October 11) SFGN recalls a few brave souls who dared to venture out of the closet long before it was safe or acceptable to do so. We salute their courage.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989) Born George Jorgensen in Bronx, New York, the WWII veteran traveled to Sweden in 1952 for sex reassignment surgery. When Christine Jorgensen returned to the USA the following year, the paparazzi were out in force. She made it work for herself, pursuing a somewhat successful career as a jazz singer--she often sang the show tune “I Enjoy Being a Girl.”

Jorgensen enjoyed greater success as an author and a public speaker, advocating for transgender rights--and gay rights-before the term transgender had been coined. In a 1967 television interview now archived at You Tube, Jorgensen stated that she wasn’t the first as the media had reported, but that sex change surgeries had in fact begun as early as 1926.

The 1970 film “The Christine Jorgensen Story” recounts her life story in a soap opera-ish but still entertaining and positive manner. Not available on DVD or Blu Ray, the film was recently posted complete at You Tube.

One of the most famous poets of his day, Lord Byron left England in 1816, never to return. His scandal prone life included accusations of incest and many incidents of extramarital affairs-it’s believed he bedded both women and men. Whether he left England of his own free will remains open to debate, though at the time he wrote that he’d been advised to stay away from the theaters and not to perform his Parliamentary duties.

That same year he spent the summer in Switzerland with noted writers George Polidori, and married couple Percy and Mary Shelley. The foursome challenged each other to write a ghost story, which resulted in Mary Shelley’s immortal tale “Frankenstein.”

Byron died of a fever at age 36.

Jose Sarria (1922-2013) While Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man in US history to win elective office, Jose Sarria was the first to actually run. His 1961 campaign for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors may have failed, but Sarria got many more votes than anyone expected him to. A long time drag performer at the Black Cat, a San Francisco gay bar that closed in 1964, Sarria often closed his shows with his signature tune “God Save Us Nelly Queens”. Many gay men have said that when they were first coming to accept their own sexuality, Sarria was the first person to tell them to embrace who they were. Sarria’s many accomplishments including co-founding The Tavern Guild in the mid-1960s, a support organization that helped gay bar owners and patrons combat the police harassment that was common at that time.

Sarria’s funeral at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco attracted thousands of mourners, including elected officials and the very police department that had once harassed him. At his funeral the SFPD honored the groundbreaking activist.

Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Oakland California, it’s believed that Stein, a famous writer and art collector, moved to Paris in 1903 because her lesbianism was not considered an issue among the famous circle of artists and writers who lived in the City of Light at the time. In 1907 she met Alice B. Toklas, who became her partner. The couple lived together in Paris until Stein’s death in 1946. In 1933 Stein published “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas,” which was actually her own life story told in Toklas’ voice: the book became her bestknown work.

After Stein’s death, Toklas lived in poverty after the Stein family ignored Gertrude’s express wishes that her estate go to Toklas--this is one of the first known examples as to why marriage equality is needed. soflagaynews //

Born Dennis Pratt to an upper middle class family, it became clear to all that the effeminate boy was a “homosexual for all the world to see”. From the early 1930s onward, Crisp lived an openly gay life in London, at a time when being out endangered one’s personal safety. Crisp endured many beatings, sometimes at the hands of the police. He stood trial on trumped up prostitution charges when in fact he was waiting for a bus and not “soliciting”.

It’s believed that Crisp coined a most familiar phrase in 1931 when he said, “I wish to live in the world and not in a closet”.

Crisp recounted his experiences in his 1966 memoir “The Naked Civil Servant,” which was a best seller, becoming an international celebrity at around age 70 when Thames Television filmed the movie based on the book. He spent the rest of his life writing books, acting in movies, touring in a one-man show and speaking. He died at age 90 as he was preparing to perform his one-man show in London.

SouthFloridaGayNews // SFGN.com //

10.8.2014 // 17

special section national coming out day Celebrate Coming Out Day With

David-Elijah Nahmod

These Five Films

Here are a few films to help with your celebration of National Coming Out Day. Come out, come out, wherever you are!

Making Love (1982) Kate Jackson (Charlie’s Angels, Dark Shadows) had hoped that this theatrical feature would elevate her career from TV star to big screen Goddess. Alas, that didn’t happen, but “Making Love” was still a courageous film for 20th Century Fox to release in 1982.

All three stars, Jackson, Michael Ontkean and Harry Hamlin were big TV names at the time: they were cast in the film because no film star of the

period was willing to go near this material.

Though set in that strange Hollywood netherworld where everyone has a great deal of money and big, beautiful homes, “Making Love” remains a sweet, sensitive tale.

Clair (Jackson) is a happily married woman who comes to the slow realization that her husband Zack (Ontkean) is indeed having an affair, though not with a woman, as she first thought.

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) A sensational film set in London’s Pakistani immigrant community. Upwardly mobile Omar (Gordon Warneke), lives with his hopelessly alcoholic dad. Wanting a better life, Omar decides to follow in the footsteps of his upwardly mobile if crude, womanzing Uncle Nasser.

Omar opens a laundromat with a little help from his

Ontkean is superb as a supposedly happily married doctor whose life has been a struggle against his true sexual desires. He comes to terms with himself — and comes out — after his affair with moody novelist Bart (Hamlin), who teaches Zack how to love a man even though he’s incapable of love himself.

Years ahead of its time, “Making Love” is as lovely a film as the title tune by Roberta Flack.

uncle and makes a financial killing. Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis) an angry and violent young man who gets into a number of street brawls, accepts Omar’s job offer in the hopes of finding a better life for himself. Soon, the two are making love in the laundromat’s back room.

Omar is urged to find himself a wife, but he sticks with the tough, rage filled Johnny in this lovely story of finding true love and one’s true self.

Desert Hearts (1985) This shamelessly romantic love story is set in 1950s Nevada and was directed by out lesbian Donna Deitch.

Helen Shaver stars as Vivian, an emotionally repressed professor in town for a quickie divorce from a loveless marriage. There she meets Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), a free spirited cowgirl who doesn’t care if people know that she likes women. Cay’s somewhat wild ways shocks

Vivian, who falls in love with the younger woman in spite of herself.

The film’s period flavor is beautifully established by the strategic placement of popular doo-wop and country songs of the era as Vivian slowly comes to love not only Cay, but her own true identity.

Beautiful Thing (1996)

deal with beatings from his abusive dad. Their gradual coming out is caused the by deep love they come to feel for each other: watching them dance together to the tune of Dream a Little Dream of Me by Cass Elliot is one of gay cinema’s all time great romantic moments.

A lovely crowd pleaser about Jamie and Ste (Glen Berry, Scott Neal) two teen boys in a poor neighborhood in London. Both come from broken homes, and Ste has to

Get Real (1998) Newcomer Ben Silverstone is wonderful as Steve, a British teen who’s deep in the closet. Classmate Johnny (Brad Gorton) is the handsome jock headed for Oxford.

Johnny is willing to have sex with Steve secretly, but has no intention of coming out, ever. Though his first love

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breaks his heart, Steve learns to love and accept who he is, and to come out proudly. As Johnny proves himself to be a coward, Steve emerges as one of the finest, and most true-to-life gay characters we’ve ever seen.

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column chamber chat

S.O.M.A Membership Directory & Resource Guide

By Jorge Richa

Marketing & Programming Director; Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (MDGLCC)

The Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce is on the final stretch of its Membership Campaign and consequently compiling the information that will appear in its “2015 Membership Directory & Resource Guide.”

This book is the most important LGBT and Allied community resource directory available in South Florida from which to plan, purchase and / or select service providers. Copies of this book, 20,000 of them, will be printed late this year and distributed monthly to over 130 locations in South Florida as well as mailed to the MDGLCC’s members, elected officials, and CEO’s of major corporations.

The use of this book, as well as telling the Chamber members that you are conducting business with them as a direct response to their support of the MDGLCC, reinforces their continued investment in the South Florida community of 500,000 loyal LGBT patrons The estimated LGBT purchasing power in Miami-Dade County is $7 billion. As a means of

directing that strength, the MDGLCC devised an easy way to track this support. S.O.M.A. stands for Support Our Members Always. It is from this support that our community thrives and has a voice in the policies that shape our nation, our state, and our local communities.

The MDGLCC reflects the needs and desires of the LGBT & Allied businesses that are OUR members. We ask that you refer to the 2015 S.O.M.A. Membership Directory and Resource Guide frequently when making recommendations to a friend, have a need for a service and/or, looking for that special item for yourself or business. We are strongest when we act as a community so let this book serve as an inspiration to S.O.M.A. To our more than 1,100 members (650+ companies), we appreciate your support. We will continue with our strive to create more opportunities to bring you valuable business.

To those who have considered membership in the MDGLCC, now is the time to make that investment!

For any inquiries or interest in joining the MDGLCC, please visit www.gaybizmiami.com or reach us at info@gaybizmiami.com / 305-673-4440. soflagaynews //

SouthFloridaGayNews // SFGN.com //

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column publisher’s editorial

Supreme Court Ruling Muddies and Mends the Marriage Waters

Norm Kent

norm.kent@sfgn.com

Oh, no. With the opportunity before it to declare same sex marriages universally legal in all fifty states, the Supreme Court on Monday punted the issue back to each state individually.

That’s good, because so many rulings have gone our way.

That’s bad, because you never know; some jerk of a federal judge might not go our way.

I am left feeling like Homer Simpson, screaming ‘Argggh!’

It’s also ironic that again I am writing yet another editorial in our gay community’s newspaper drawing more on my experience as a constitutional rights lawyer for 40 years than just a guy who wants to find a parking space in Wilton Manors.

Anyway, here we go. This week, the Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriages in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Federal courts in those states had already ruled gay marriages were legal, and with the high court saying they were not going to overturn those rulings, gay and lesbian couples started getting married in those states within hours. These courts have controlling jurisdiction in six other states as well, all which had banned gay marriage.

There is a ripple to every Supreme Court ruling. As to same sex marriages, this means it will now be immediately legal in 24 states and the District of Columbia. Another six will quickly follow.

No, not Florida, not yet- but soon, possibly. Hang in there.

The New York Times suggested that the courts are taking the approach they did on interracial marriage 50 years ago, just sitting back and waiting until almost every state allowed interracial pairings, and then finally saying it was a constitutional right.

In other words, the court will apply the hammer after the nail is already knocked into the plank. That’s frustrating. None of us want to wait. There are Pam Bondis everywhere; still a few federal courts that have not spoken.

The good point for our side is there has been an unprecedented string of victories in court for same-sex couples, even in Florida, and the Supreme Court effectively said on Monday those decisions are binding, controlling and the law. Legally, that means you can

PEACE

now get bound, married and controlled by your spouse.

Seriously, though, gay marriage is like that cannabis joint you just smoked after dinner.

It’s burning faster than courts can keep up with it. Popular opinion, public polling, and history are on our side. So are a lot of gay wedding planners. Just think, in Utah, you can not only get married, you can marry ten boyfriends at once.

Gay marriage is here to stay, so much so that nearly two thirds of same-sex couples in the United States will soon live in states where they can marry legally. We are on an irreversible path.

Unfortunately, at least until their cases get into court, a third of our population remains out of the legal loop.

However, other appeals courts will rule soon. My guess is that we are looking at as many as 35 states allowing same sex marriage by the end of the year. But that explains why I disagree with what the Supreme Court did. I don’t think your constitutional right to marry should depend on your zip code, or when a judge gets around to hearing your case.

The Supremes disappointed me. I was actually hoping they would take this case in early October and expedite it; maybe decide the issue even before the end of the year. Now it has been punted, potentially even to the fall of 2015. Relying on last year’s Windsor case, their attitude was probably, “hey you guys are already winning in case after case, enjoy the flow, and let it go.” I say no.

This newspaper sides with Evan Wolfson, the outstanding gay lawyer who now is the president of Freedom to Marry. He said on Monday, “The court’s delay in affirming the freedom to marry nationwide prolongs the patchwork of state-to-state discrimination and the harms and indignity that the denial of marriage still inflicts on too many couples in too many places.”

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If I want to be treated with indignity and abuse, demeaned and disgraced, I can just go hang out with my best friends or go home to my partner. I don’t need to be flogged by the Supreme Court. By not ruling when they had a chance to, the court fled from the chance to make history in a good way. They ran away from righteousness.

Ultimately, worry not. We will get what we want, but not when we want and the way we wanted it. But now at least we also won’t have to wait for the last Tuesday in June of 2015 for the Supreme Court to decide. A lot of people should be registering at Neiman Marcus this week.

Finally, Pride South Florida made a statement too last night. We voted unanimously to hold the greatest gay wedding party in the history of America next year on Sunday, March 1 in the city of Fort Lauderdale. Just imagine, thousands of gay couples from all over the United States celebrating on a Fort Lauderdale beach at sunset.

What a sight this could be, legally or symbolically.

Stay tuned to SFGN and the rest of the local gay and mainstream media for details. Maybe we will even ask Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler to preside. NOT!

column transforming gender

Rethinking HRC Rebecca Juro

rjuroshow@gmail.com

Recently, I took a trip to Washington D.C., but I didn’t take that three-hour Amtrak ride south to look at monuments and statues. I went to talk.

Much of my time in Washington was spent inside a building I’d only been in once before, and not for the reason I’d been there last time. You see, the last time I visited this building a decade ago, I’d spent most of my time there standing in front of it holding a protest sign.

It was, in fact, a little surreal to walk in the front door of the headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign as a welcomed visitor rather than as an adversary, but a decade is a long time.

Like most trans people, particularly those of us who have been around long enough to remember when things were different, I’ve carried my own preconceived notions about HRC, its policies, and the people who work there for a very long time. What I discovered during this visit was that a lot of those notions just don’t hold up anymore.

It was no surprise to see trans people working at HRC. I’d known this to be the case for a while by then. What I got to see for myself was how the trans and gendervariant folks working for HRC are, to a person, top-notch activists, the right people in the right places.

Throughout my visit to HRC, visiting, talking with, and getting to know some of the people who work there, one thought continually rose unbidden in my mind: There are no tokens here.

Even though I still haven’t reached a point where I can confidently say I trust the Human Rights Campaign as an organization, I can say that I absolutely do believe in the people on the ground, doing the work. If there’s anything I’ve gained from being a trans journalist and radio host and from publicly opposing the kind of politics HRC once employed as long as I have, it’s a finely tuned bullshit detector. Every good journalist knows that when something smells funny, there’s usually a good reason.

I approached this visit to HRC as an

opportunity not only to talk but also to listen, to learn who and what this organization and the people involved with it are about today. What I found surprised me, at least a little.

Everyone I met and spoke with at HRC expressed not only a deep commitment to the goals we all share as a community, but to advancing trans people and issues in particular.

What’s more, they made me believe it. My BS detector didn’t go off once.

It was easy tell that the trans folks working for HRC are well aware of the weight of the banner they’re carrying for both the trans community and for HRC, as well as the necessity that they do it well. These are the kind of people I’d choose if I wanted my organization to be able to have a real impact on the issues impacting trans people.

Having personally followed and reported on this organization for well over a decade, I remember how many times HRC tried to keep the truth from the trans community, but they were never particularly good at it. Whenever they behaved badly, we always busted them sooner or later, usually sooner. If this is some sort of political fake-out, as some have suggested, it’s the bestplanned and best-executed fake-out I’ve ever seen.

Boys, girls, and everyone else, I do believe they’re for real this time.

If that sounds like an endorsement, then so be it. I saw and heard a lot during those couple of days at HRC, and I came away much more impressed than I expected to be. HRC hasn’t earned my confidence or my trust yet, though I do believe that could come in time. What I do think this organization has earned, from all of us, is a new look with fresh eyes, without the misbehavior of the past coloring our opinions.

If we’re to honestly call ourselves advocates and activists, we must believe that what we do can change the world, and just as importantly, we must also be able and willing to recognize when it finally does.

Rebecca Juro is a nationally-published freelance journalist and radio talk show host who is the Media Correspondent for The Advocate website. Her work has appeared in the Huffington Post, the Washington Blade, Gay City News, the Albany Times Union, and The Advocate magazine, among others. Rebecca lives in central New Jersey and shares her life with a somewhat antisocial cat.

Email: rjuroshow@gmail.com Twitter: @beckyjuro soflagaynews //

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letters to the editor Not All Readers Support SFGN Editorial Attacks on Bondi and Scott Peter Ryskewecz Dear Editor: As a lifelong Democrat — until 2010 — as well as a devoted 30-year-member of a public sector employees union, I as well as many South Florida Gay voters profoundly disagree with the SFGN portrayal of GOP Governor Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi as racist and homophobic.

For the past campaign year the SFGN Editorial Staff has promulgated this contrived and border-line hysterical condemnation because Attorney General Pam Bondi is defending the Florida state ban on gay marriage.

What the myopic constitutional scholars of SFGN do not understand is that the AG is sworn to defend the Florida State Constitution, even if she does not personally want to. Bondi is simply doing this because 60 percent of Floridians voted for the constitutional ban, which includes very large numbers of Independents, as well as the majority of Black and Hispanic Democrats, who, incidentally, vote against Gay marriage more than whites.

Realistically, all the published SFGN columnists who address the Florida Governor’s race fail for the past nine months to inform their readership that subsequent to Reaganappointee US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy casting the deciding vote in the 5-4 USSC decision to support the Log Cabin Republicans vs. the State of California, and outlaw approximately 45 state bans of same-sex marriage; federal judges, including conservative Reagan and Bush appointees, are routinely overturning state bans in this final perfunctory but inconsequential state-by-state appeal process, even in conservative states.

In the next 8-10 months, all state ban appeals will be summarily dismissed, overturned by federal judges as unconstitutional, and legalized gay marriages will proceed and proliferate.

Be assured, SFGN columnists, this is simply the way a USSC decision runs its course. And all the momentum is decisively in favor of Gay marriage, and Gay marriage bans are going to the proverbial guillotine.

Hence, Pam Bondi is simply going through these toothless motions, because her Oath of Office requires her to defend the existing Florida State Constitution until a federal judge will obviously overturn it.

That being said, let’s look at how Pam Bondi has handled her job, otherwise, as AG of the nation’s third largest state.

Under her brief remarkable tenure, Florida has become a national role model in decimating the horrific pill mills that once flourished statewide, and she has put scores of corrupt doctors and staff in prison.

The intrepid Bondi has also achieved national acclaim from other mega-state law enforcement officials, including California, Texas, and New York, in her aggressive prosecution of human traffickers.

Moreover, Florida has the lowest crime rate in 43 years...and that certainly helps Gay people feel safer at night.

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As for the SFGN’s criticism of Rick Scott, let’s get real.

Rick Scott has induced numerous Fortune 500 companies and cutting-edge high-tech firms to open up shop throughout Florida. His business acumen has brought 640,000 plus new jobs to Florida, and his reelection is very likely to add approximately 5-600,000 more new private sector jobs, according to business journals.

Already, Jacksonville, Orlando, and Fort Lauderdale are listed among the top 10 US cities for veterans, millennials, women, and yes, Gays to find careers.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley are reporting that Florida will become the nation’s hub for Hispanic-owned high-tech firms. Step aside California and Texas.

And tourism is up to near-record levels as tens of thousands of consumers return to spend their money in Florida, often to the benefit of Gay businesses. Home values are climbing back up for Gays and everyone else; and a steady plethora of new banks are coming into every Florida city because retirees are moving in by waves with their pensions and retirement income.

Downtown Broward’s huge development of condo complexes reveal that most investors like what Governor Scott has set in place for Florida’s broad-based economic renaissance post 2007 financial-crisis.

And let’s not trivialize the $1.3 billion state budget surplus Governor Scott has presided over.

SFGN should be promoting Florida and the Gay economy, not casting it as hopeless as West Virginia or the back woods of deprived Alabama.

And, to target their more astute GLBT readers, I would cheerfully say that Gay voters should look forward to a Gay wedding in Florida if that is what they desire, as well as tax reform that protects same-sex couple’s estates; and just as important, look forward to a successful career in Florida if that is what one also desires.

The Gay precincts of South Florida were narrowly won by the Dade and Broward Gay GOP in 2010 when Rick Scott was first elected, according to a university study published by the SFGN in 2011.

I would be willing to wager that the Republican Governor and his Attorney General will net at least 40 percent, or two-out-of-five Gay voters, on Election Day once the exit polling is concluded.

Those numbers reveal the glaring incongruity the SFGN editorial writers have with a significant number of thoughtful mainstream GLBT voters you quietly vote Republican more often than not.

Sincerely, Peter Ryskewecz Fort Lauderdale, FL soflagaynews //

Re-Elect Florida Governor Rick Scott Rev. Gus Kein I’m going against the grain; there are ice cubes in hell and snow in Miami.

Yes, you are reading this correctly: I endorse and support the re-election of Florida Governor Rick Scott. When Rick Scott ran for governor I didn’t vote for him, his social policies like drug testing the poor were repugnant to me.

But Gov. Scott is no ordinary elected official and his actions since being governor have changed my mind.

Gov. Scott ran as an outsider whose mantra was “Let’s get to work.” As much as his detractors have tried to paint him as a Tea Party conservative (he is not) or an anti-gay bigot (he remains neutral on gay marriage) he was elected to get Florida back in business. Gov. Scott did not need the job of governor and is not likely to seek higher office. He refuses to take his state salary and works for free He has a genuine concern to create economic growth by attracting businesses and more jobs. That’s what he said he was going to do. The proof is in the pudding - he has done what he has promised.

Under former Gov. Charlie Crist unemployment went from 3.5 percent to over 11 percent. Gov. Scott has worked to see unemployment reduced to 6.3 percent. Gov. Charlie Crist left Florida with the $3.6 million budget shortfall and raised taxes by $5.2 BILLON. Gov. Rick Scott created a $1.2 million surplus and cut taxes over 40 times. Over 643,000 private sector jobs have been created in our state during his term. Near and dear to my heart is Gov. Scott’s 100 percent support for our gun rights – he supports the 2nd Amendment. Gov. Scott signed over 12

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pro-gun bills into law this year.

When Gov. Charlie Crist saw our state falling apart he ran away seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate. He could have been re-elected easily (his poll numbers were very high at the time), but he wanted to climb the political ladder rather than face the music.

When Marco Rubio bested him in the Republican primary Crist became an independent and eventually lost to Rubio. Now, jumping Charlie has “evolved” into a Democrat. It seems former Gov. Charlie Crist needs a job.

He has no new solutions and a proven track record of leading our state into an economic train wreck. Former Gov. Crist has spun in so many directions I don’t know where he stands anymore on the issues.

Gov. Rick Scott ran on one simple platform – fix the economy and put Floridians back to work Businesses have been locating in Florida and job creation benefits everyone including those in the GLBT community. You can’t get married if you don’t have a job and money for rent. By supporting the 2nd amendment he has stood against gay bashers and right wing nuts buy allowing everyone – including the GLBT community to own a firearm for protection. He did not run as a social conservative or as a member of the Tea Party. He is the consummate outsider who came to get the state going again and that he has done. Gov. Rick Scott promised and delivered on his platform. Between Charlie Crist and Rick Scott the choice is easy. Reelect Gov. Rick Scott as our Florida Governor.

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10.8.2014 //23

column off the wall

Go Your Own Way Pier Angelo

Last month Scotland voted to remain in the United Kingdom. The campaign for independence galvanized the country but also divided families and friends. The decision of the Scots to stick with the UK hasn’t deterred leaders of the remaining break-away movements brewing across the European Union. Flemish nationalists in Belgium, Catalans in Spain and Italy’s Venetians believe they have not lost momentum even though the pause button is on after the descendants of Braveheart opted to remain with Britain.

Mel Gibson be damned.

If the Scots hadn’t chickened out at the last minute a split from the Crown might have energized some of the American states to push forward with their own plans of secession. On Nov. 7, 2012, “Michael E” from Slidell, Louisiana, created an online petition requesting the Obama administration “To peacefully grant the State of Louisiana to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own government.”

The petition, of course, started as a response to the unexpected 2012 presidential reelection of a black man. Since then it has grown into a national movement encompassing many grievances, namely economic problems and the expansion of the federal government. By 6 a.m. Nov. 14, 2012 various petitions had garnered thousands of signatures. Such petitions are largely symbolic in nature and few people expect any state to actually secede, but it is nice to dream.

According to the “We the People” website,

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the largest petitions had the following signature count:

Texas: 125,000 Tennessee: 32,694 Alabama: 31,597 Arizona: 23,987 Arkansas: 23,506 The top 5, listed above, are also my pick.

I would grant them, and several others, (Mississippi, West Virginia, Kansas, Kentucky, North Florida) immediate independence. No questions asked. In fact I am begging them to go ahead and do it. Speaking on the matter, former Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Representative from Texas Ron Paul said “It’s very American to talk about secession -that’s how we came into being.”

Petitions that receive over 25,000 signatures within 30 days of their filing make them eligible to receive an official response from the White House. On January 15, 2013, the White House officially stated that they will not allow the states to secede.

Too bad. We would have everything to gain and nothing to lose. After all 38 percent of the people living in those states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 65 percent believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 45 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 55 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11, 60 percent believe they are people with

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higher morals and more than three-quarters believe the Bible was actually written by God, probably on a rudimental word processor or Dictaphone.

We would immediately get rid of parochial and tribal politics. For a start, Texas and Arizona could, on their own, handle the problem of immigration as they see fit and stop bitching and ranting against the federal government. They can keep Ted Cruz and overlook the fact he is an immigrant from Canada. While the rest of the country will be going to Disneyland they will be stuck with creepy Bible Themed Parks. Great concerts will take place at Madison Square Garden, they will enjoy Opryland. What about Graceland as the answer to the White House?

The new independent states will have 75 percent of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, most of the televangelists, and Rush Limbaugh might choose to relocate and marry Anne Coulter.

We will finally be able to get on with stem cell research, reinforce Roe v Wade, funding of the arts, health care reform, education overhaul, gay marriage, even rational gun laws, and keep 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. They could also take with them most of the national obsession with Jesus, their ingrained racism, blatant homophobia, feces thrower Fox News, the NRA and a good chunk of the GOP. They can keep the two party system if they think it will work better under their new found independence: The Tea Party and The

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Whiskey Rebellion. One or the other will have to adopt the condom as their emblem to reflect their real political views. A condom stands up for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks and gives one a false sense of security while screwing others.

The other party should use the silhouette of a Neanderthal man scratching his head while holding an AK47. Badcoins will be their new currency. As they leave the union we should remind them that not every ejaculation deserves a name but they will be free to name every building and every highway after Saint Reagan. We will have a chance to build back the separation of Church and State because, despite their incessant whining, our country is not based on Christian religion.

Overnight we could settle the various disputes between the United States Bureau of Land Management and cattle ranchers over unpaid grazing fees bringing to an end armed confrontations between protesters and law enforcement. These modern cow boys do not recognize, and will not submit to, federal police power.

Once they are independent they can do whatever they want, even marry their own cows. They do not have to repeal DOMA since in the new states it will aptly stand for Defense of Married Assholes. Of course we are keeping the good weed; they can have the crap they grow south of the border. What a wonderful new country this could be: The Renaissance States. Imagine.

SFGN

presents

history people

History Month

The History of Us Pier Angelo How do you record or write the history of a secret, of something that until recently did not even dare to speak its name?

Homosexuals have been around since Homo sapiens but how do you go about finding the progress of a minority that has throughout the centuries been perceived as everything from pariahs to child molesters?

Who writes history? The victor gets to write it. The ruling class puts its stamp of approval on it. The parties in power twist it or change it to suit their own means. Often remarkably shortsighted and darkly colored views get recorded under the name of “history.”

Take the Texas Board of Education. It voted 11-4 in favor of changing the textbook guidelines for history, economics, social studies, religion, capitalism and government to reflect a more conservative perspective of America, including which major cultural movements to focus on and which to leave out.

On the other hand, the State of California passed a law making Gay History a requirement in public schools. The law adds LGBT Americans to a long list of groups that should be represented in social studies classes.

Supporters of the that law believe teaching gay history will help to foster tolerance on campus. UC Berkeley professor Tina Trujillo says a change in instruction can shift students’ opinions on a given subject.

For the first time in the United States teachers are figuring out how to incorporate the new material into their classes. The teaching of Gay History becomes an historical landmark for our still fledgling movement.

What do we know of our history? The further back we go the more doubtful its accuracy is, as is the case for the ancient Greeks and their student lovers. Or it is speculative and tentative, with little proof to back it up, when it applies to gay monarchs and popes through the ages.

It is a collection of incomplete bits and pieces when artists, writers, composers from previous centuries are discussed in a gay context. It becomes more reliable when we read about the horrors brought on, starting in 1871, by Germany’s Paragraph 175, which later became a tool for the persecution of homosexuals under Hitler’s Third Reich.

Time can be a great, albeit slow, storyteller; churning forward while oppression inevitably gives way to acceptance. Students in California will perhaps have a chance to learn of the legal trials of Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, of the scandal of reparative therapy, the reason for ACT-UP, the travesty of disallowing gays in the military, the killing of Harvey Milk. But also the recorded post Stonewall celebrations, legacies born out of that seminal act of defiance such as Gay Pride events the world over, Gay Games,

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National Coming Out Day, the glory, mixed with the heartache of the AIDS Quilt, the repealing of both DADT and the sodomy law, openly gay politicians serving in Congress, same sex marriage in 19 states, plus Washington D.C. They are little dots and sparks when looked in the context of eons of history. We will take whatever we can get. We have been a people forced to hide ourselves and our history. But the secret is out, we have a story to tell the world. Millions of stories never told until now, and history is also written by common, everyday people. We have to take note of our achievements and mark the milestones that let us see how we came to be and where we are heading.

As Dwight Eisenhower said, in 1961, what we have in front of us is: “The long lane of history yet to be written.”

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10.8.2014 //25

h istory people

Tenderloin’s LGBT Places Survives Seth Hemmelgarn Bay Area Reporter

S

an Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood has a colorful history and was once the center of gay life in San Francisco.

Grittier than the Castro, which in the late 1970s overtook “The Loin,” as it’s sometimes called, as the city’s gay hub, the neighborhood just blocks away from City Hall also has a well-worn reputation for drug dealing, robbery and other crimes. It’s home to some of the city’s poorest residents, many of whom are living with HIV and stay in the district’s single-room occupancy hotels.

The neighborhood is bounded by the historic Beaux-Arts City Hall on one side and Union Square’s upscale hotels and shops on the other. Most of the gay bars, theaters and bookstores that once filled the Tenderloin are gone, but a handful have survived, and many LGBTs still express fondness for the area.

One business that’s held on since the 1970s is the Tea Room Theatre, 145 Eddy St. The tiny lobby has pictures of movies with titles like “Cum Smack 2,” and a sign warns, “J/O [jacking off] only is allowed in the theater.”

Inside the small, dark auditorium on a recent Friday afternoon, it would have been impossible to see without the light from the porn being projected onto the screen.

In a couple of seats at the front, one man on either side of the aisle was giving head to his seatmate, disobeying the sign in the lobby.

During an interview in which he spent the first several minutes standing behind the metal gate that separates his office from the lobby, Steve Angeles, 50, praised the Tenderloin, the neighborhood he calls home. The area is “very friendly,” he said, and it’s “the real San Francisco.”

Angeles, who’s worked at the theater for five years, said, “I really don’t know” why the business has survived, but it’s “probably” because it’s a short walk from two BART transit stations. Plus, “we show all the brand new movies every week, and we are friendly,” he said.

Business appears to be brisk. Customers include men from out of town and regulars from the neighborhood.

“When they retire, they have nothing to do, just relax,” Angeles said of patrons. “People feel at home here.”

At 35, Marc Woodworth is likely one of the Tea Room’s younger fans. Woodworth, who lives in Europe but is in San Francisco six months at a time, comes to the theater once or twice a month.

Aja Monet has lived in the Tenderloin for several years.

Photo: Seth Hemmelgarn

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There’s “no other place to go” in San Francisco, he said.

Angeles, who doesn’t identify with a specific orientation but said, “They call me Mama Steve,” said the current lease is up in 2015.

“Hopefully,” he said, the building’s owners will give the theater “another few years.”

About a block from the Tea Room, soul music played inside Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk St., as Louie Lopez, 74, and Paul Lee, 73, stood outside.

The gay men listed the bars that used to be nearby, like the Blue and Gold and the Landmark, and the people they used to see there.

“There was always something going on,” said Lopez, who lives in the neighborhood and started coming to Aunt Charlie’s almost 30 years ago when it was still Queen Mary’s Pub. Lee said the neighborhood “was like a candy store” when he first came in 1976. “It was so much fun.”

However, he noted, “There was a lot of prejudice against people from the Tenderloin,” and there still is.

“If you just tell someone you used to hang out here, they say, ‘But you don’t go there anymore, do you?’” Lee said.

Inside Aunt Charlie’s, the narrow walkway between the bar and some tables and benches frequently doubles as a runway for drag performers as they lip-sync to songs and collect tips.

Joe Mattheisen, 65, a gay Tenderloin resident, has worked at the bar for about 16 years.

Mattheisen said one reason the business has outlived many others is that it’s not “the sole source of income” for its owner, unlike other establishments. Over the years, the bar has also added drag shows and DJs. Queens And Hustlers The block where Aunt Charlie’s sits was recently named Vicki Mar Lane, after Vicki Marlane, a transgender woman who performed there for years before she died in 2011 at the age of 76 of AIDS-related complications.

Felicia Elizondo, 68, a close friend of Marlane’s, first visited the Tenderloin in the early 1960s, and said she hasn’t noticed much change in the neighborhood since then.

Elizondo, a transgender woman who lives in another neighborhood now, recalled the area being packed with “queens” and “hustlers.” People made money by “selling drugs and selling themselves,” she said, and the district was “very dangerous.”

(Elizondo said she didn’t deal drugs but she did work as a prostitute.)

Someone could get “thrown in jail for obstructing the sidewalk” and people would get “beat, murdered or raped” by “tricks or people that just didn’t like gay people,” she said.

Elizondo remembered a woman named Rhonda who died after “one of her tricks cut her breast out.” She didn’t know Rhonda’s last name.

“When you came to San Francisco, you came to San Francisco to start a new life,” she said. “You weren’t nosey. Most people wanted to forget the past.”

Elizondo also recalled Compton’s Cafeteria. The 24-hour cafe at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets was the site of an August 1966 riot where transgender patrons stood up against police, who had been called to quell a disturbance. The exact date of the riot has been lost to history.

A ceremony in June 2006 featured the unveiling of a commemorative sidewalk plaque at the former Compton’s location, which was timed with the 40th anniversary of the riots, which predated by three years the more famous Stonewall Inn rebellion in New York City.

The Compton riot is widely viewed as the beginning of the LGBT-rights movement in San Francisco, but Elizondo said that at

soflagaynews //

SouthFloridaGayNews

Paul Lee (left) and Louie Lopez stand outside Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, one of the last gay bars in the Tenderloin.

Photo: Seth Hemmelgarn

the time, it didn’t have a noticeable impact.

“Everything went back to the same old way,” she said.

Almost 50 years later, though, some things have changed.

In the lobby of the Tenderloin police station, about a block away from the Compton’s site, a sign assures visitors that the space is an “LGBT safe zone.”

Captain Jason Cherniss, 44, who’s straight and heads the station, wasn’t familiar with the details of the Compton’s riot, but he expressed support for the LGBT community and enthusiastically spoke of how, when he was in college, he examined the Castro’s evolution as a gay mecca.

The San Francisco native’s biggest public-safety concern in the Tenderloin is drug dealing. Anyone who’s walked through the neighborhood probably has stories of being approached by dealers, and the station’s newsletter regularly lists incidents for sales of cocaine, heroin and other drugs.

As for what to do about it, Cherniss said, “We’re not going to be able to arrest our way out” of the problem, but he keeps officers “visible” and encourages property owners not to leave locations “blighted.”

In his September newsletter, Cherniss featured gay Tenderloin resident Aja Monet, 44, as the Citizen of the Month.

Among other activities, Monet, who is HIV-negative, sits on the HIV Prevention Planning Council, an advisory group to the city’s health department that sets priorities for HIV prevention. He’s also hoping to have an LGBT Pride event in the Tenderloin next year.

Monet, who came to San Francisco in 1988, said that he used to smoke crack and worked as a prostitute “off and on.”

Now, he’s been off drugs for five years, and he works on graffiti removal and other issues in the area. The neighborhood hasn’t been as impacted by development as the Market Street corridor just a few blocks away, but he thinks more development is coming to the Tenderloin.

“They’re running out of places to build,” he said.

Monet didn’t show any interest in leaving the district, and he said he feels “very safe” there.

“I think somebody called me a motherfucking faggot” a few months ago, but “that was someone that didn’t know me,” he said.

“People in the neighborhood ... they don’t talk like that.”

Seth Hemmelgarn is an assistant editor at the Bay Area Reporter. He can be reached at s.hemmelgarn@ebar.com.

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history people

Historical Members of the LGBT Community LGBTHistoryMonth.com

LGBTHistoryMonth.com features a new profile everyday in October. Visit their website to see more.

Lord Byron

Michael Callen

Margaret Cho

Birth: January 1, 1788, London, England Death: April 19, 1824, Ottoman Empire

Birth: April 11, 1955, Rising Sun, Indiana Death: December 27, 1993, Los Angeles, CA

Birth: December 5, 1968, San Francisco, California

“The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.”

“The party that was the ’70s is over.”

Poet

Born George Gordon, Lord Byron was a leading poet of the Romantic period. His ambiguous sexuality, flamboyant persona, and lifestyle of excess have made him a cultural and literary legend and among the first prominent bisexuals.

Byron studied at Trinity College in Cambridge, where he published his first volumes of poetry. In his early 20s, he traveled throughout the Mediterranean region and took up residency in Greece. When Byron returned to England in 1811, he published “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” which garnered him a following among aristocrats and intellectuals.

Byron’s personal life was steeped in mystery. It is speculated that he had a child with his half-sister Augusta.

In 1816 he spent the summer with authors Mary and Percy Shelley, with whom Byron is thought to have had more than a platonic relationship. His extravagant personality and penchant for scandal made Byron a celebrity of the Romantic era.

Lord Byron’s literary legacy is defined by his satirical epic poem, “Don Juan.” Byron’s hero, Don Juan is a fictional libertine characterized by cynicism, magnetism and rebellion.

Byron wrote openly about love and lust for both men and women. He was among the first important writers labeled as bisexual. Some scholars assert that such a label does not encompass the full complexity of the poet’s fluid sexuality.

Noted literature professor Emily Bernhard Jackson stated: “It is not so simple to define Byron as homosexual or heterosexual: he seems rather to have been both, and neither ... For Byron, sexuality was not this -ality or that -ality, not this aim or that object, not this particular yearning or that particular desire. It was just desire, and it just was.”

AIDS Activist

Entertainer

Michael Callen was a pioneering AIDS activist. In 1982, when Callen was diagnosed with Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID), little was known about the “gay cancer.”

Those with the disease knew their days were numbered and that the disease stigmatized them. Callen did not hesitate to come out openly as a gay man with the fatal disease and to take action.

He was convinced that GRID was sexually transmitted.

In 1983 Callen co-wrote one of the first guides on safe-sex practices, “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic.” He appeared on television talk shows and wrote for newspapers and magazines. He became the face of AIDS, as the disease was renamed.

While Callen never advocated for the closure of bathhouses, he did believe that gay men were suffering from their own promiscuity. In 1982 he coauthored an article in the New York Native in which he declared “war on promiscuity” and argued that gay men needed to rethink their attitudes toward sex and relationships.

Callen also gained recognition as a songwriter and singer. His music reflects the frustration of living with a chronic disease but also celebrates love as a powerful force for healing. His lyrics promote loving companionship and long-term partnerships for gay men.

Callen toured internationally with the gay a capella group The Flirtations. His solo album, “Purple Heart” (1988), won wide acclaim and features the hit song “Love Don’t Need a Reason,” which he performed at the 1993 March on Washington for LGBT Rights.

In 1985 Callen helped found the People With AIDS Coalition. In doing so he coined the term PWA’s (People With AIDS) to foster a self-empowered movement. He served on many boards and provided testimony for government bodies including the President’s Commission on AIDS. Callen died of AIDS-related complications. soflagaynews //

“Try to love someone you want to hate, because they are just like you, somewhere inside, in a way you may never expect.”

Margaret Cho is a nationally known comedian. She was born to Korean immigrant parents in San Francisco, a place that she calls “different than any other place on Earth.”

Despite this melting pot of ethnicities and sexualities, Cho faced discrimination because of her weight.

“Being bullied influenced my adult life because I grew up too fast,” Cho said. “I was in such a hurry to escape that I cheated myself out of a childhood.” Through this struggle, she found the emotional strength to advocate for those facing discrimination and ridicule.

At age 14, Cho channeled her experiences into stand-up comedy. In college she won a stand-up comedy contest.

The first prize was opening for Jerry Seinfeld. Upon seeing her act, Seinfeld suggested that Cho quit college and pursue a career in comedy. Cho was among the first to bring LGBT rights out of the shadows and into the mainstream comedy circuit.

About her own sexuality Cho stated, “I refer to myself as gay, but I am married to a man. Of course, I’ve had relationships with women, but my politics are more queer than my lifestyle.” Cho’s uncensored stand-up routines often include queer politics. Her stance against bullying and discrimination earned her a GLAAD Golden Gate Award for enhancing the understanding, advocacy and visibility of the LGBT community.

Visit LGBTHistoryMonth.com for more LGBT icons each day in October.

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national coming out day

Homo History 101 N Coming Out Day

ational Coming Out Day was observed for the first time on October 11, 1988.

Pier Angelo

October 11, 1988: First National Coming Out Day. It is observed annually to publicize

coming out and to raise awareness of the LGBT community and civil rights movement.

The day is celebrated in a wide variety of ways: from rallies and parades to information tables in public spaces. Participants often wear pride symbols such as pink triangles and rainbow flags. National Coming Out Day is observed in many countries, including Australia, Canada, Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Closeted and in the closet are adjectives for LGBT people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity. The closet narrative sets up an implicit dualism between being “in” or being “out.” Those who are “in” are often stigmatized as living false, unhappy lives.

However, though many people would prefer

to be “out” of the closet, there are numerous social, economic, familial, and personal repercussions that lead to them remaining, whether consciously or unconsciously, “in” the closet. The decision to come out or not is considered a deeply personal one, and outing remains a problem in today’s culture.

Outing is the act of disclosing a LGBT person’s sexual orientation or gender identity without that person’s consent.

Outing gives rise to issues of privacy, choice, hypocrisy, and harm, in addition to sparking debate on what constitutes common good in efforts to combat homophobia and heterosexism. A publicized outing targets prominent figures in a society, such as well-known politicians, accomplished athletes or popular artists. In an attempt to pre-empt being outed, a public figure may decide to come out publicly first. After the Stonewall riots , swells of gay-libbers came out aggressively with slogans such as “Out of the closets, Into the streets!” Some began to demand that all homosexuals come out, and that if they weren’t willing to do so, then it was the community’s responsibility to do it for them.

“Outrage” is a 2009, documentary

by Kirby Dick. It argued that several American political figures have led closeted gay lives while supporting and endorsing legislation that is harmful to the gay community. It focused particular attention on Idaho Senator Larry Craig, an outspoken opponent of gay rights who in 2007 pled guilty to disorderly conduct for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in a public bathroom. Outrage featured interviews with several people who claim that Governor Charlie Crist has led a private gay life while, during his tenure, publicly opposing gay marriage and gay adoption. Other politicians discussed in the film include former Virginia Representative Ed Schrock, California Representative David Dreier, former New York City mayor Ed Koch, and former Louisiana Representative Jim McCrery.

“Glad to Be Gay” is a song

by British punk rock/new wave group Tom Robinson Band. It is considered Britain’s national gay anthem since its release in 1976.”Glad to Be Gay” is built around four

verses criticizing society’s attitudes towards gay people. In the first verse, it criticizes the British police for raiding gay pubs for no reason at all, since homosexuality had been decriminalized in 1967. In the second verse, it shows the hypocrisy of Gay News being prosecuted for obscenity instead of porn magazines like Playboy. On the third verse, it points out the extreme consequences of homophobia, such as violence against LGBT people. There have been ten versions officially released. Later lyrics were added and addressed the early outbreak of AIDS with the message: “just lay off the patients and let’s fight the disease.”

If you want to learn more about your gay heritage and those who paved the way, through activism, sacrifice, courage, civil disobedience to give us a better and freer life you can visit The Stonewall Museum & Archives in Wilton Manors.

We should all know who our gay heroes are and be thankful for what they did on our behalf.

Let’s talk about a contingency basis.

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SouthFloridaGayNews

The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisments. Before you decide, ask the lawyer to send you free written information about the lawyers qualifications and experience.

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h istory people

Revisiting The First Pride March Nearly 50 Years Later

By Jen Colletta jen@epgn.com

O

n July 4, 1965, John James traveled to Philadelphia to march among a group of gay and lesbian demonstrators calling for liberty for LGBT people. Nearly 50 years later, James is again surrounded by LGBT people in the City of Brotherly Love — this time in a very changed world.

Earlier this year, James, 73, moved into the John C. Anderson Apartments, an LGBTfriendly senior-living facility in the heart of Philadelphia — more specifically in the “Gayborhood” section. The building, just one of a few affordable LGBT senior-living complexes, is the largest publicly funded LGBT building project in the nation’s history. The complex is home to a vast cross-section of the LGBT elder community — businesspeople, artists, activists, researchers, social workers and everyone in between — who lived through, and at times led, the birth and growth of the modern LGBT-rights movement.

That movement is largely thought to have begun at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in 1969. But, four years earlier, a different sort of protest calling for LGBT freedom germinated on the steps of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall — fittingly, the birthplace of American freedom.

The 1965 Annual Reminder march was conceived of by Craig Rodwell and organized by such pioneering activists as Frank Kameny, based in D.C., as well as the Philly-based Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen.

The demonstration was set for Independence Day to call attention to the notion that gays and lesbians were being deprived the basic rights guaranteed to them in our nation’s founding documents.

At the time of the march, James was a 24-yearold working as a computer programmer at the National Institutes for Health. He moved back to D.C., where he grew up, in 1963, after earning his undergraduate degree from Harvard University.

James’ father was a federal anti-trust attorney and he followed in his footsteps in seeking federal employment after abandoning his plan to pursue medicine.

“I was always interested in science and went to college intending to do pre-med but I decided it wasn’t for me,” he said. “I had a summer job at Sloan Kettering and just wasn’t impressed with what I saw there, with all the bureaucracy.

So I figured I needed to make a living and got into computers; in those early days, there was no possibility of home computers but over the years things changed totally.”

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James said he began coming to terms with his sexuality in his early 20s and, upon returning to D.C., joined the fledgling Mattachine Society, a “homophile” group whose Washington chapter was the brainchild of Kameny and Jack Nichols.

At group meetings, James said he was more of an observer, while Kameny and Nichols ran the show.

“Jack went on to be a well-known gay writer but, at the time, he used a pseudonym, Warren.

His father was an FBI agent, and Hoover had a real thing about homosexuals. His father told him he’d kill him if the FBI found out about [his being gay], so we always used the name Warren,” James said. “So he and Kameny and some others came up with the idea for the demonstration.”

As plans began circulating for the Independence Hall picket, James said he decided to join up despite not being a strong backer of demonstrations.

“It was kind of the thing to do; I went along and did it because that was the thing to do right then,” James said, noting it was the first public demonstration in which he participated.

And, since the demonstration was in a different city, fears over being outed were lessened. At the time, James was only out to a small circle of family and friends.

Demonstration participants were asked to consent to having their photo taken, and he declined.

“It was more of a commitment for the local people, because they could be recognized, whereas those of us from Washington wouldn’t. But we were asked by photographers working with the demonstration if we wanted to be photographed, and I said no because I liked my job.”

At the time, the federal government largely operated under a policy of terminating “known homosexuals.”

“They would fire anyone who was known to be gay. I didn’t want to lose my job,” James said.

The federal policy also prevented James, who worked at NIH until 1967, from pursuing other federal positions — which he said ended up being fortunate.

“I never considered applying for a security clearance because they would’ve found out and that would have complicated things. But, I didn’t want to do military work anyway,” he laughed, “so not having a security clearance was one way to make sure I stayed away from that.”

In advance of the demonstration, organizers ensured that participants would both dress and soflagaynews //

act professionally.

“We all wore suits and ties. That was Kameny, that was his philosophy,” James said.

About 40 people participated in the inaugural picket and marched for about an hour-and-a-half behind a police barricade, holding such signs as “Homosexuals should be judged as individuals” and “Homosexual civil rights.”

James said there was “some degree of fear” about the public reaction to the demonstration, but they were met with no real pushback.

“People took it in stride. I didn’t notice any expressions of either hostility or support,” he said. “It turned out peaceful, we weren’t attacked by people in the streets or anything.

Things could have happened, but they didn’t.”

While James stayed out of photos, it turned out he may have been captured — in part — in a photo of Gittings that ran on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“I suspect my leg is showing in the picture.

But I’m not sure,” James said.

James only participated in that first event, but picketers returned each year for the next four years; the final Annual Reminder demonstration took place just days after the Stonewall Inn riots of 1969.

While the 1965 demonstration is now credited as being one of the first public LGBTrights demonstrations, the weight of the event wasn’t as apparent at that time, especially since his activism focus was a bit different than that of the organizers’.

“It was kind of just matter of fact, I did this thing. I knew there was a symbolic importance at the time, but it wasn’t necessarily the kind of movement I would have done myself if I hadn’t been asked, but yet again I wasn’t an organization person anyway. So I went along with how Frank and Warren wanted to do it,” James said. “My philosophy was a little different; Kameny’s was to pick one issue and do just that issue, where my idea was to mix all the issues — antiwar, gay rights, civil rights, whatever you had the opportunity to do.”

James had the opportunity to put that

SouthFloridaGayNews

philosophy into practice years later.

After leaving federal employment, James said he went out to the West Coast to have the customary “Haight-Ashbury experience” and, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic flourished in the 1980s, went on to found AIDS Treatment News.

In the beginning of the epidemic, the publication explored alternative medicine and experimental treatments and went on to publish more than 400 editions.

“When treatments were becoming available, no one wanted to cover it. So we were talking to patients, doctors, scientists. That was my main project,” he said, noting that he found his true passion laid in that type of behind-the-scenes activism, rather that the public nature of actions like the Annual Reminders. “I was never much into demonstrations so I think that, by far, my most important activism was AIDS Treatment News. That was my contribution. I like to work on long-term projects that don’t have a particular day where they culminate. I realize with demonstrations that they work to build up relationships, which is really important. And get publicity. Demonstrations help to get issues talked about that should be talked about, but that way just wasn’t my thing.”

After years of operating on the West Coast, living in San Francisco became unaffordable, and James packed up ATN and headed back east, deciding to settle in Philadelphia, where he had a number of colleagues and friends.

ATN now operates as an independent project housed at Philadelphia FIGHT. James returned to a city that, like most of society, views LGBT people in a wholly different light than in 1965. Illustrative of that is the city’s plans for a large-scale celebration next year to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of the Annual Reminders pickets.

“We never would have thought of any official recognition like that. That would have been inconceivable,” James said. “We were just happy to be more tolerated. We weren’t looking for anything out of the government besides just letting us live how we wanted to live and leaving us alone.”

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history

PRIDE Institute Paved Way For LGBT Substance-Abuse Treatment Jason Parsley

W

hen the PRIDE Institute in Minnesota opened up in 1986 it was a novel idea — a substance-abuse treatment center catering to the gay and lesbian community.

But within three months of opening, every bed was filled, proving there was a need.

“Back then we dealt with a lot of homophobia — internal and external,” said co-founder Ellen Ratner of PRIDE. “I think what made a difference is that we dealt with internalized homophobia.”

The idea for PRIDE started with an LGBT specialty track at a treatment center in New Hampshire run by Lawrence E. Bienemann.

“In the last year we started to do specialized treatment and we were successful initially with Ellen’s patients,” he said. “Our gay and lesbian track was the first in the nation.”

And that track inspired Bienemann to lay the groundwork for a full-fledged treatment center for gays and lesbians, which would become the first in the world.

“Specialized treatment just made sense,” he said. “We also had specialized treatment facilities for PTSD and a track for cocaine abuse.”

Bienemann approached a group of investors and quickly raised almost $1 million. He hired Ratner to put the program together.

“PRIDE was an example of people working together.

We became well-known very quickly,” Bienemann said. “It was bad enough to be an addict, but to be gay or lesbian on top of that, that was two strikes against you.”

Founding board member Mel Pohl agreed.

“The shame that’s associated

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with addiction is magnified by sexual identification,” he said. “Because of the shame of being gay or lesbian, compounded with the disease of addiction, it really impacts people’s ability to get well.”

Pohl said he was excited to join an elite group of professionals Ratner had recruited to advise the new facility and serve on the board.

“It was a fairly prestigious group of gay and lesbian activists and addiction specialists,” he said. “To have an opportunity to work with a high-level clinical staff committed to this mission was really inspiring.”

Pohl would later serve as the chief of clinical services for PRIDE for three years.

Minneapolis was chosen because the corporation that started PRIDE owned several other facilities in and around the city.

There were talks of later moving the institute to a more gay-centric location such as New York City, San Francisco or Washington, D.C. but those plans never panned out, Pohl said.

Pohl admitted the founders didn’t have a blueprint for success and adapted as they went along.

“At PRIDE we normalized being gay,” he said. “And that was the key issue, to have a normalization of being gay. Addiction is a disease where you feel uniquely better or uniquely worse. To sit in a group and not be

soflagaynews //

able to come out safely almost destined that person to fail.”

Ultimately, Pohl said, it came down to safety.

“The biggest impact of PRIDE in the community for those who had an addiction is that now they had somewhere they could be safe,” he said.

But something else that separated PRIDE from other treatment centers was its approach to HIV. “The other thing we had to address was HIV,” Bienemann said. “Normally a treatment center, at that time, wouldn’t treat that or deal with it. But we did.”

And that was one of the reasons Pohl wanted join PRIDE. On top of being gay and being an addict, “the stigma of having HIV added another factor to the mix,” he said. “To have a safe place for people who were HIV-positive was really intriguing.”

Ratner is especially proud of the work she did at PRIDE in those first few years. She believes the facility really made a difference in a lot of people’s lives.

“We did outpatient surveys and found that we had a higher success rate than other places,” Ratner said. “Our patients did better.”

Twenty-eight years later, PRIDE is still going strong despite the advances of gay rights and mainstream acceptance of the LGBT community.

Pohl isn’t surprised at its longevity.

“The complexion has changed perhaps because of HIV and marriage, and participation in mainstream culture,” he said. “But there is still a lot of shame involved in sexual identity.”

SouthFloridaGayNews

Pohl said that even in today’s society, being gay-friendly is largely dependent on the staff.

“You have to rely on the integrity of a staff,” he said. “Homophobia is alive and well in our society.”

Molly Gilbert, the current director of business development at PRIDE, added: “There are a lot of places that are LGBTfriendly, or have an LGBT wing. But here is a place where LGBT people will receive trauma-informed care and find a staff that is experienced in dealing with the LGBT community. This is a place where people can say, ‘I’m finally in the majority for the first time in my life, and I don’t have to explain myself.’”

It’s been decades since Ratner has had any involvement with PRIDE as well. She left the corporation in 1990 and is now working as a journalist.

She attributes the early success of PRIDE to the fact that they dealt with all of the major issues gays and lesbians faced, such as the internal and external homophobia mentioned above.

“The ways gays and lesbians met back then were known as the three Bs — bars, baths and bushes,” Ratner said, explaining that gays and lesbians faced a lot of difficulties just being themselves. “We speculated at the time that there was a [direct correlation] between being out to your family and sobriety.”

So family became a core component of their program.

“We also had a family program that sometimes included their partners or straight families. They would really learn to give support to their family member,” she said.

“Who would have thought a gay person’s lover or family would come? That was just radical back then.”

But Ratner wanted to not only help her

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The Pride Institute of Minnesota was founded in 1986, and is still thriving twenty-eight years later. patients become comfortable with their own sexuality — she wanted them to feel comfortable in the “straight” world as well.

“We used to take patients to straight and gay AA meetings so they could be comfortable at both,” she said.

Ratner, herself openly gay back, had also been a gay-rights activist for years.

PRIDE was founded under the now-defunct Addiction Recovery Corporation where Bienemann was president. He recruited the 35-year-old Ratner to put together a manual for the family program, and then to do research and service training. In order to fulfill that responsibility, she put together a team of professionals in the substance abuse field from all over the nation, including Pohl.

“I had already been working in the gay and lesbian community in addictions,” she said.

Bienemann told the Boston Globe in a 1987 article “any inpatient drug and alcohol treatment center has a difficult time meeting all patients’ needs. In the chemical-dependence field, there is general insensitivity to issues specific to the lesbian and gay population. At ARC, it’s only recently that we have begun to train staff to guard against homophobia.”

Bienemann also said he wanted to address the statistics that were showing one-third of gays and lesbians were chemically dependent.

“That’s three times the national average,” Bienemann said in 1987. “Given those statistics, there’s a real need for a separate treatment center.”

And the current statistics aren’t much better now than they were then.

Studies are scarce in the area of LGBT

Join the Discussion! substance abuse but, according to one report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20-30 percent of the LGBT community abuses substances, while only 9 percent of the general population does. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also states that LGBT individuals are more likely to use alcohol and drugs; have higher rates of substance abuse; are less likely to abstain from alcohol and drug use; and are more likely to continue heavy drinking into later life.

In the early years of PRIDE, alcohol was the most prevalent drug of choice followed by cocaine, Ratner said. Today it’s crystal meth, said Todd Connaughty, the current director of clinical services.

Over the years, the treatment center has changed hands several times. Today it’s owned

by Universal Health Services, a company that owns hospitals and behavioral-care centers around the country. They also own other PRIDE Institutes, but those facilities only share the same name and owner, but are in no other way connected to PRIDE in Minnesota, said Gilbert.

Looking back at those years, Ratner does have a couple of regrets.

“I wish we had done more research. And published that paper that was done and ready to go. The world should have known what we learned there. One of the things we found was that if you drank two or more drinks, you would not have safer sex. Back then, that was a life and death issue. There was no cocktail; when you got AIDS you were dead.”

For more information, visit www.prideinstitute.com.

Jason Parsley is the associate publisher of the South Florida Gay News. He lives in Boynton Beach, Fla., with his fiancé.

Thursday, October 9 • 7– 8 pm Wednesday, October 15 • 7– 8 pm • Watch live on BECON TV (WBEC Channel 63 and Channel 19 for Comcast users) • Stream online at SpeakUpBroward.org

Take our survey & enter to

WIN $500!

Help plan the future of Broward. Visit SpeakUpBroward.org and complete our online survey by October 24 for a chance to win!

broward

• Call in and listen live at 877-353-4701 • Join us in person at the Broward MPO office at: Trade Centre South, 100 W. Cypress Creek Road, Suite 850, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309

For details, visit SpeakUpBroward.org or call (954) 641-8141

mpo

metropolitan planning organization

For complaints, questions or concerns about civil rights or nondiscrimination; or for special requests under the American with Disabilities Act, please contact: Christopher Ryan, Public Information Officer/Title VI Coordinator at (954) 876-0036 or ryanc@browardmpo.org

soflagaynews //

SouthFloridaGayNews // SFGN.com //

10.8.2014 // 41

history people

Double Date With Walt Whitman

An interview with playwright Tim Martin and actor Tom Irvin

By Henrik Eger PGN Contributor

Walt Whitman & Peter Doyle, circa 1869

W

alt Whitman is one of America’s most celebrated poets, essayists and journalists, even though during his lifetime (1819-1897) his work was considered controversial. Whitman broke with many traditions and is now seen as the father of free verse. Fundamentalists objected to the homoerotic passages in his poetry collection “Leaves of Grass,” which was described as obscene and overtly sexual. Yet, his work is now part of the American literary canon and read and studied in schools and universities.

Henrik Eger: It’s rare to have the opportunity to interview both the playwright and the actor who played Walt Whitman — a kind of literary double date.

Tim, when you wrote “One’s Self I Sing,” whom did you have in mind to play Walt Whitman?

Tim Martin: At the time, I was working with Tom [Irvin] at Hedgerow Theater and he was a natural to perform the part. As I wrote it, I had him in mind.

HE: Tell us about the production history so far.

Tom Irvin: We premiered “One’s Self I Sing” at the Hedgerow Theatre in 2004 as a staged reading in their New Play Festival. It was amazing to revisit it this year in Quince’s GayFest!. I was impressed with the audience it drew and was blown away by the applause and response it received.

It was well-deserved. What’s your connection to Walt Whitman?

Martin: Whitman was heavily taught in college. We read him backwards and forwards. His photo hung next to Ginsberg’s in the Writing Department office. He was a sort of poetic great-grandfather, the patriarch of the American Lineage. And so, I have had a deep reverence for his work.

Irvin: I really identify with Whitman.

That became clearer to me the more I worked through this piece. This performance came only two months after my dad died, and that gave me a lot to connect to. There’s a lot, late in the play, where Whitman begins to realize he communicates his feelings better through his poetry—even to the people he really loves and cares about. I’ve found that I am more easily able to communicate my true feelings through what I can create on the stage. This piece, in many ways, is an example of that for me.

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If you could talk to Whitman himself, what would you say, and what would you ask him?

Irvin: Honestly, and this probably isn’t the “right” answer, but, I would probably want to just talk “boys” with him. I want the details, the dirt, the juicy, sexy stuff. Tell me more about Pete, about your meeting with Oscar Wilde, and confirm the recent rumors about you and Abraham Lincoln.

Martin: I’m interested in his spirituality.

His openness to the world is stunning. I’d love to ask him about his views on identity.

He seemed so fascinated by every element of American life.

If you had a chance to talk to Peter Doyle, or any of Whitman’s other companions, what would you say to them or ask them?

Irvin: What was Walt like as a lover? Not just in bed, but, was he attentive, did he put you first?

I was moved by Whitman’s capacity to accompany young soldiers on their last journey. Could you give an example?

Martin: Sure.

Is there anything else you would like us to know?

Irvin: While there are no concrete plans on the horizon, I’d love to see it get a full production somewhere down the road, hopefully soon. I think Walt Whitman deserves that.

I think so too. Clearly, people were moved. Why do you think they still relate to Whitman?

Martin: With polls today telling us just how polarized we are, Whitman’s personal battles with self and state show the courage and the uniquely American voice that is just as prescient today as it was in the 1800s.

Henrik Eger is editor of “Drama Around the Globe” and author of “Metronome Ticking” and four textbooks. Born and raised in Germany, he earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois and went on to teach English and communications on three continents. Contact him at HenrikEger@ gmail.com.

“I have just left Oscar Cunningham, an Ohio boy — he is in a dying condition — there is no hope for him. It would draw tears from the hardest heart to look at him — his is all wasted away to a skeleton and looks like some one 50 years old. You remember Mother, I told you a year ago, when he was first brought in, I thought him the noblest specimen of a young western man I had seen, a real giant in size.

Poor dear son, though you were not my son, I felt to love you as a son, what short time I saw you sick and dying here. It is as well as it is, perhaps better — for who knows whether he is not better off, that patient and sweet young soul, to go, than we are to stay? So farewell, dear boy, for nothing could be done — only you did not lay here and die among strangers without having one at hand who loved you dearly, and to whom you gave your dying kiss.” soflagaynews //

SouthFloridaGayNews

Tim Martin, playwright

Tom Irvin, Actor

Bill Duckett & Walt Whitman

column Bathroom Vanities • Showers • Faucets • Tiles Cabinet Handles • Door Locks • Kitchen Organizer Hinges • Glass Hardware and more...

October 11 marks National Coming Out Day, tell us why it’s still important to come out today?

SFGN Staff SFGN’s “Speak OUT” is a weekly feature giving a regular voice to South Florida LGBT leaders.

Below are some of their answers:

“

While I had been out to friends, family and colleagues for quite some time when I first filed to run for Miami Beach Commissioner in 2006 I decided to not discuss my sexuality as part of the campaign to distract from the issues. After winning the first round and heading into a run-off, I was “outed” in the final days of the campaign on a live radio show in an attempt to hurt my chances of getting elected, however, the residents of Miami Beach voted for my qualifications and experience and I am forever grateful. I am proud to have served as the first and only openly gay elected person on the Miami Beach Commission.”

—Michael C. Gongora, former Vice Mayor of Miami Beach

“

My favorite film about coming out is Trevor, directed by Peggy Rajski, about a sweet junior-high age boy finding himself. At only 17 minutes, it’s perfect to show in classrooms and other gatherings. The DVD is available on Amazon.com.”

— Toni Armstrong, Founder/Director of BLAST Women of WPB

“

It’s important that people continue to come out because it is a freeing experience to be one’s self. There are too many stories of people suffering from hiding and compartmentalizing. There is a true value in being authentic and it demonstrates self-respect.

—Meredith L Ockman, SE Regional Director of NOW; VP Florida NWPC & President of S. Fla Women’s Health Foundation

“

Living in fear of the opinions or actions of others imprisons us spiritually, physically, sexually, emotionally and psychologically.

Coming Out will always be important because fear is toxic to every level of our being, and because nothing is more liberating than proudly sharing our full selves with others.”

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM

—Lea Brown, Senior Pastor, MCC of the Palm Beaches Visit SFGN.com/SpeakOut to see more of this week’s responses.

Send an Email to Jason.Parsley@sfgn.com if you know of a LGBT community leader that should be or wants to be a part of this list.

3520 N. FEDERAL HIGHWAY FORT LAUDERDALE, FL. 33308

BUSINESS HOURS: MONDAY-FRIDAY: 9:00 AM TO 6:00PM SATURDAY: 9:00 AM TO 4:00PM

EUROHARDWAREBATH@GMAIL.COM

soflagaynews //

954-440-0743

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10.8.2014 //43

lifestyle travel

Pride and Progress in the Caribbean

Miami’s Tiffany Fantasia Hosts Curaçao Pride Week Jason Parsley

Two weeks ago the island of Curaçao in the Southern Caribbean (not far off of the coast of Venezuela) celebrated its second annual Pride Week.

While most of the Caribbean is known for it’s hostile climate toward the LGBT community, Curaçao is rare gem of gay friendliness boasting 17 members of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, more than any other island in the Caribbean.

And the 5-day festival showed how gay friendly it is with a white party, boat parade, beach party, cabaret dinner show and multiple drag shows.

Miami’s Tiffany Fantasia hosted the drag shows at this year’s festival. This is her fourth time traveling to Curaçao for various LGBT events.

“I had an amazing time hosting the drag shows at Curaçao pride! It’s so amazing to see an already diverse country celebrate their LGBT community. I feel this year was better in terms of the variety of entertainment and activities,” she said. “The LGBT community is more than a community, they’re a family!

They truly look out for one another and if you come to the island, they treat you like family too.”

The main festivities took place at the host hotel, the Floris Suite Hotel, where the gay pride flag was flying all week.

Drag queen Tiffany Fantasia takes her act into the water on the beaches of Curaçao.

“We are extremely pleased with all the support and encouragement we have received from the community, the various companies that sponsor Pride, and the Curaçao Tourist Board. The response from the media was also very positive. The [attendance] compared to last year doubled and we saw more people from abroad come to Curaçao, especially for Pride,” said Marlous Molendijk, Floris Suite Hotel Ambassador. “It is amazing to have all these events where everybody feels welcome, regardless of skin color, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.”

The island is already gearing up for its next big LGBT event, the Exotica Festival, taking place Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 and billing itself as the Caribbean’s “Winter Party Festival.”

“Exotica Festival is the hottest new international LGBT dance event in the Caribbean, the “Winter Party” of the Caribbean,” said Fabian Chundro, founder.

“Exotica brings you for the first time the Circuit Party concept to a true Caribbean Island, the beautiful, exotic and best kept secret island of the Caribbean.”

The festival will include 7 international DJs, 2 international porn stars and Brazilian pop star, Nicky Valentine.

Next year’s PrideFest will take place Sept. 30 to Oct. 4.

Visit GayCuracao.com, CuracaoPride.com, FlorisSuiteHotel.com and ExoticaFestival.com for more information on the island and its upcoming events.

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outeats

Special Advertising Section Shawn and Nick’s Courtyard Café

SFGN Staff

Whether your day starts or ends at Courtyard Café, it should definitely include it.

The café has been around for a quarter century under various owners, but Shawn and Nick have owned it for the last five or six. While the location hasn’t changed, you can thank Shawn and Nick for the tasty improvements to the menu.

Take breakfast, where you can build your own omelet from dozens of options. Load up your eggs with everything from spinach to chili. Other favorites like the homemade biscuits and gravy and eggs benedict are up for grabs, too. Don’t worry, breakfast is served all day, so you can enjoy pancakes or French toast any time you want.

That goes for lunch and dinner, too. Grab a burger anytime, and build your own as well.

For less than $10 you can add anything to your burger, including grilled pineapple and even sauerkraut. Essentially, add anything to your burger that the restaurant has on hand.

And not just sirloin burgers, the café also offers turkey, veggie, and even an Alaskan salmon patty.

If that’s just too many choices, try the dozen-plus burger options on the menu, including the California Bacon Avocado burger and the fan-favorite Manor Burger.

Not into burgers? Try the chef’s homemade meatloaf with veggies and mashed potatoes or even the haddock (blackened, teriyaki or lemon pepper) dinner options. Look out for the kid-friendly menu, too, and bring them along on Tuesday or Thursday when they can eat for free. Ask about the fit fare selections for low-carb or low-calorie options.

Don’t pass over the appetizers! Try the popular fried green tomatoes – crispy, crunchy green tomatoes fried to perfection and served with a Cajun ranch dipping sauce. Or nosh on the mac ‘n cheese bites – deep-fried macaroni and gouda cheese balls that you can down in one chew. Some may consider this a bad thing but they taste delicious so it’s worth it.

If you’re around for breakfast, ask about the mimosa special: $4.50 a glass or the $20 bucket special – a bottle of champagne and your choice of orange juice, pass-o-guava or peach nectar. For other times of the day, beer and wine selections are available.

If you can make it to dessert, try any of the homemade cheesecakes that rotate often to whatever the chef prefers. For a limited time, try the pumpkin swiss roll – pumpkin cake layered with cream cheese and topped

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SouthFloridaGayNews

with whipped cream. Your visit will not be complete without this.

The Courtyard Café doesn’t just offer a wide variety of amazing diner food, but you can also get it anytime you want. They’re option every day, but walk in any time Thursday, Friday, or Saturday since they’re option 24 hours. Whether you’re starting your night off or ending it, the Courtyard Café has everything you want, any time you want it.

If You Go: Courtyard Café 2211 Wilton Drive Wilton Manors, FL 33305

wiltonmanorscourtyardcafe.com

954-563-2499 Mon.-Wed., 7 a.m.-11 p.m.

Thur.-Sat., 24 hours Sunday, till 3 a.m.

Coming Soon

Men’s Night!

Beefcakes

2 for 1 dinners* and drink specials all night long *with drink purchase

Starts Wed. Oct. 15th Visit us now for

15% off lunch or dinner With coupon valid until Oct. 14th

Santa Lucia Ristorante 2701 E Oakland Park Blvd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306

(954) 396-0930

SantaLuciaRistorante.com

So, in order:

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10.8.2014 //47

F O R

SFGNITES

T H E

J.W. Arnold

jw@prdconline.com

THUR

LITERATURE

W E E K

O F

o c to b er

9

-

o c to b er

1 4 ,

2 0 1 4

W W W . S F G N . C O M

ilgamesh Taggett stars as Daddy G Warbucks and Issie Swickle as Annie in the production of the Broadway 10/9 Acrossopening America season at the Broward Center through Oct. 19.

The Wilton Manors Gallery of the Stonewall National Museum and Archives, 2157 Wilton drive, hosts transgender youth activist Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel, director of the Stonewall National Education Project, at 7 p.m. for a discussion of “I am Jazz,” the book they recently co-authored. This important addition to children’s literature explains Jazz’s real life experience as a transgendered youth and serves as an inspiration to children, parents and teachers. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, go to StonewallMuseum.org.

FRI

theater

10/10

The Broadway Across America season kicks off this week with the heartwarming musical, “Annie,” playing through Oct. 19 at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale. Davie resident Issie Swickle stars in the touring production that features such unforgettable favorites as, “It’s a Hard Knock Life,” “Easy Street,” “I Don’t Need Anything but You” and that eternal anthem of optimism, “Tomorrow.”

Martin Charnin, the show’s lyricist and original director, directs this production. Tickets start at $34.75. For show times and tickets, go to BrowardCenter.org.

SAT MUSIC

10/11 SUN

Tigertail Productions opens its 35th year tonight at 9 p.m. with neo-bop jazz pianist Johnny O’Neal at the Miami Dade County Auditorium On Stage Black Box, 2901 W. Flagler in Miami. O’Neal’s playing ranges from the technically virtuosic to tender ballad interpretations. Though unique in style, he is influenced by many jazz elders, including Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum, and was a member of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Largely self-taught, Johnny has a repertoire of over 1,500 songs. Tickets are $25 at Tigertail.org.

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MUSIC

10/12 MON

fundraiser

The Chopin Foundation of the United States opens the new season of Chopin for All concerts, October 11–12, with outstanding young American pianist Ivan Moshchuk performing an all-Chopin program. Just 23 years old, Moshchuk is among the most promising artists of his generation. He will perform at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Broward County Main Library, 100 S. Andrews Ave. in Fort Lauderdale, and on Sunday at Granada Presbyterian Church, 950 University drive in Coral Gables. Both concerts are free and open to the public. For more information, go to Chopin.org. soflagaynews //

10/13 TUE

Let’s face it, we all have to eat. Chances are you like to eat meat, too. Today from 11:30 a.m. – 10 p.m., you can enjoy delicious tender beef, pork and ribs at Red Cow BBQ, 1025 N. Federal highway across from the Gateway Theatre in Fort Lauderdale, and a portion of proceeds will benefit the Pride Center. How easy is that? Just mention “Pride Center” or “Dining with Pride” to your server. Now you have your excuse to pig out on Columbus Day. For more information, go to PrideCenterFlorida. org or RedCow.com.

SouthFloridaGayNews

WORKSHOP

10/14

Who knew that Lesbian like their kink, too?

Ladies: If you’ve ever wanted to explore your fantasies and push the boundaries of sexuality through BDSM, plan to attend Kink 101, a special class offered by the Pride Center and the LBTQ women’s S&M community.

Skilled presenters and esteemed teachers will answer your questions from 7 – 8:30 p.m. in a safe environment at the center’s main hall in the Schubert building at the Equality Park campus on Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors.

The workshop is free. For more information, go to PrideCenterFlorida.org.

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HHHHH YEAR S BEST

“

’

ONE

OF THE

”

“DON’T TRY TO RESIST.

WILL MAKE YOU CHEER!” “

HHHHH ” TIME OUT NEW YORK

BEACH Regal SELECT ENGAGEMENTS MIAMI South Beach Stadium 18 START FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 (800) FANDANGO #198

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SouthFloridaGayNews

SOUTH FLORIDA GAY NEWS

FT. LAUDERDALE The Classic Gateway Theatre (954) 763-7994

CHECK DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES NO PASSES ACCEPTED

a&e comedy

Gay and Lesbian Film Fest Kicks Off Check out SFGN’s reviews of this weekend’s films J.W. Arnold SFGN had the opportunity to preview several of the films being showcased during the first weekend of the Fort Lauderdale Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Oct. 10-12. Be sure to check next week’s issue for reviews of films from the second weekend, Oct. 16-19.

stretch—even by today’s standards—but, the film counters with lots of heart and an incredibly mature performance from transgendered actress Michelle Hendley as Ricky.

“Four Moons” (“Cuatro Lunas”) Sergio Tovar Velarde, Dir. Mexico, 2014, U.S. Premiere Spanish with English subtitles, 110 min.

Friday, Oct. 10, 8 p.m.

Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale

Four stories of love, heartbreak and selfacceptance between men of different generations as they face their conflicts and their fears: An 11 year-old boy feels attracted to his male cousin.

Two college students start a relationship that gets complicated as one of them refuses to come out. A long-lasting male relationship is in serious trouble when one feels attracted to somebody else. An old, family man is obsessed with a young male prostitute and tries to raise the money to afford him.

SFGN: From the opening credits, Director Velarde weaves together four parallel stories of homosexual attraction and angst, lust and love, all told with nuanced performances and expert cinematography. Audiences—regardless of age and sexual orientation— will readily identify with each of these characters as they desperately pursue emotional and physical intimacy in the only ways available. “Four Moons” is a compelling, beautiful film that should not be missed.

“Boy Meets Girl” Eric Schaeffer, Dir. USA, 2014 English, 94 min.

Saturday, Oct. 11, 4:30 p.m.

Cinema Paradiso

“Boy Meets Girl” is a sexy, romantic, coming of age comedy about three 20-year-olds living in Kentucky. Ricky and Robby—a gorgeous transgender woman and her childhood friend— have respectfully never dated. Lamenting the lack of bachelors, Ricky considers dating a girl. In walks Francesca, a beautiful woman waiting for her Marine fiancé to return from the war. Ricky and Francesca strike up a friendship and maybe a little more, which forces Robby to face his true feelings for Ricky. This is a fun, sexy and positive modern fable.

SFGN: Talk to younger Gen Y’ers and you’ll be immediately struck by the fluidity of their sexual orientation. We’re seeing kids coming out at younger ages, freely exploring transgender identities and identifying as “pansexual” and “omnisexual.” Director and writer Eric Schaeffer’s rural Kentucky setting and Ricky’s enlightened redneck father seem a bit of

Chinese restaurant. Emma’s disapproval has made strangers of mother and son, but the two need each other now more than ever, as Emma explores her newfound freedom and Elliot confronts his fears of intimacy. In this deliciously emotional and redemptive story on life and love, words may fail Elliott and Emma, but they find a common language through food.

SFGN: The usual mother/gay son relationship tensely portrayed in so many LGBT movies get stir-fried and saucy, so to speak, as cultures clash in David Au’s feel good comedy, “Eat with Me.” Look for an outstanding supporting appearance from Nicole Sullivan and a touching cameo from George Takei, but the transformational—and inspirational—performance of Sharon Omi as Emma is worth the ticket price alone. Oh, and Teddy Chen Culver can cook for us any day.

“Stand” “Stand” Jonathan Taieb, Dir. France/Russia, 2014 Russian with English subtitles, 87 min.

Saturday, Oct. 11, 9:45 p.m.

The Classic Gateway Theatre

After taking a wrong turn in their car, a young gay Russian couple witness what they believe is a vicious gay bashing. Their quandary over what to do about it propels them into ever more dangerous territory. For Anton, the burden of what they may have witnessed outweighs Vlad’s fear of probing too deeply into the incident.

Convinced of the police’s indifference, Anton talks his skeptical lover into launching their own amateur investigation into the hate crime. This film contains graphic depictions of homophobic violence.

SFGN: Don’t believe a word that train wreck Johnny Weir says: Russia is not a hospitable place for gays. That sobering fact hits home in “Stand,” no matter how much vodka it may take before sitting through this disturbing thriller. Throughout Jonathan Taieb’s dark commentary on Russia’s government sanctioned homophobia, we couldn’t help wondering if we’d step up, too, given the same circumstances. Even in the gayest city in America (Wilton Manors), hate crimes still occur, the latest just a few weeks ago.

“Eat with Me” David Au, Dir. USA, 2014 English, 95 min.

Sunday, Oct. 12, 5 p.m.

The Classic Gateway Theatre

Feeling invisible in her bland marriage, Emma moves in with her son Elliot, who lives in a downtown L.A. loft. Elliot, a young gay chef, is facing foreclosure on his lackluster

takes you backstage, frontstage, behind the scenes and in the scene of the drag community right here in our town.

SFGN: This documentary, which got its premiere at last spring’s Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, reveals the hopes and dreams of the men who perform incredible acts of illusion under layers of duct tape, makeup and sequins.

Many of the performers are familiar to Fort Lauderdale audiences—we’re only 30 miles from South Beach—but regardless, the themes director Dmitry Zhitov so effectively explores can be found in any LGBT community.

“South Beach On Heels”

“Tru Love” Kate Johnston and Shauna MacDonald, Dir. USA, 2013 English, 87 min.

Sunday, Oct. 12, 7:45 p.m.

Cinema Paradiso

Tru, 37, is a serial bed-hopping lesbian who cannot commit to a relationship until she meets Alice, 60, a beautiful widow in town to visit her daughter, Suzanne, 35, a too-busy corporate lawyer and Tru’s friend. Alice and Tru begin to forge an unlikely friendship...and more. Suzanne, who has a deeply conflicted relationship with her mother and a complicated past with Tru, becomes increasingly alarmed at the growing bond between the two and tries to sabotage the budding romance.

SFGN: The women’s films are few and far between this year—not so much an indication of Fort Lauderdale’s male-centric audiences, but rather just a reflection of the LGBT film industry this season—but this repeat from last spring’s Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival more than makes up for the disparity with a smart, witty script. The relationships may seem a bit convoluted at first, but stereotypes aside, when is a lesbian relationship ever simple?

“South Beach on Heels” Dmitry Zhitov, Dir. USA, 2014 English, 80 min.

Sunday, Oct. 12, 9:30 p.m.

The Classic Gateway Theatre

While drag shows exist from the small seedy dive bars of Middle America to the elaborate shows in Vegas, each community has performers, entertainers and artists that maintain a strong sense of family, and in Miami this is no different.

Ever wonder about the stories of real people who live behind the larger than life personas of their drag alter-egos? Well, “South Beach on Heels”

soflagaynews //

“Honeymoon” (“Libanky”) Jan Hrebejk, Dir. Czech Republic, 2013, Southeast Premiere Czech with English Subtitles, 97 min.

Sunday, Oct. 12, 9:45 p.m.

Cinema Paradiso

Secrets from the past pry into a couple’s life during their own wedding, in the form of an uninvited guest with a very unusual present. A chilling and fascinating look at how the forgotten past can rise to haunt the present, “Honeymoon” looks beautiful and serene on the surface while stirring up tantalizing tensions below. This is one wedding celebration turned nightmare that fans of suspense will not want to miss!

SFGN: As gays continue to win the battle for marriage equality, this Czech psychological thriller might just make some LGBT couples reconsider whether the institution is worth the fight. Traditional marriage vows take on deeper meaning as the creepy village optometrist crashes a wedding party and secrets from the past come to light. Think gayish “Fatal Attraction” and you’ll get the gist of a twisted storyline that is easily surpassed by the film’s production values and acting performances.

Tickets range from $8 - $13.50 and there is a discount for FLGLFF members and advance purchases at FLGFF.com. Tickets for opening, centerpiece and closing events range from $16 $35. For a complete listing of films and events, go to FLGLFF.com.

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10.8.2014 // 51

a&e film

Local Filmmaker Finds Inspiration at LGBT Festival J.W. Arnold

George Guck Submitted photo.

As audiences flock to the Fort Lauderdale Gay and Lesbian Film Festival this weekend and next to see the latest in LGBT films, an aspiring local filmmaker dreams of seeing his work on the big screen.

George Guck, 46, always dreamed of breaking into the entertainment business.

As a high school student in Coral Springs, he participated in the thespian society, and later at Florida Atlantic University, wrote his first play. Determined to see it produced, he convinced his former high school to give him use of the auditorium and one of the faculty sponsored the effort.

“After seeing that, my mom said to me she’d understand if I took time out from college, took a year off and spent time writing,” Guck recalled. “That’s when I started a screenplay.”

Like many hopeful actors, writers and directors, he moved to California. Soon he was submitting spec scripts to NBC and landed a job writing video documentaries about rapper Tupac Shakur, the Spice Girls and Selena.

“They were all topics I had no interest in, but I figured if I could write those, I could do anything,” he said.

In 1996, Guck fleshed out a comedy, “Common Interest.” He circulated the screenplay, but was disappointed with comments like it was “too gay.”

“At that time, people in middle America didn’t want to see gay characters unless they were fighting AIDS or the comical best friends,” he said. “Who knew that two years later, ‘Will & Grace’ would be on TV?” It didn’t take Guck long to realize that he would need to pay the bills while he sought his big break. He worked in retail

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SouthFloridaGayNews

and eventually moved across the country to pursue opportunities with his employer. His writing would temporarily take second place.

Nearly two decades later, gay themed films and television shows are much more common and Guck has revisited the show he lovingly calls his “baby.” Through the magic of crowd funding, he hopes to raise a substantial portion of the $300,000 to finally get the project started. He formed a local production company and has partnered with the Broward County film office.

Guck describes the story as a gay romantic comedy: The lead character, Kevin, is left at the altar by his fiancé and becomes a recluse.

When his best friend, Liz, decides to throw a divorce party with eight girls and a gay guy, Kevin quickly hits it off with her friend.

Before long, the bromance grows and Kevin realizes the two are dating.

He hopes to begin filming in and around Wilton Manors soon on the project. His projects are all focused on Wilton Manors and Broward County.

“I love the community, the things we can do in the community, the people. To me, it’s another character,” he explained.

Guck has already resolved to donate 10 percent of any profits from his project back to charities in the local LGBT community, too.

A launch party for the film is planned for Oct. 13 from 6 – 9 p.m. at Rumors Bar & Grill, 2426 Wilton drive in Wilton Manors. Guck will discuss the project, as well as introduce Kim Johansen, the first actor cast in the film.

Until the project is completed, he can be found in the audiences and volunteering with the gay film festival. But, just wait until next year.

a&e film Hunted: The War Against Gays In Russia Chilling New HBO Documentary David-Elijah Nahmod

Look for Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia premiered on HBO on October 6. Many airings will follow. The film will also be available On Demand and online. More info: http://www.hbo.com/#/documentaries/hunted-the-war-against-gays-in-russia

Ben Steele’s terrifying new documentary “Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia,” informs us that the situation for LGBT people in Russia is far more dire than we in the United States may have realized. Steele takes his cameras directly into a country whose population has become obsessed, in the worst way possible, with LGBT people.

Steele is allowed into the “inner sanctum” of Occupy Pedophilia, a loose network of homophobic young people who spend their free time cruising gay chat rooms so they can lure gay men into their lair. Once the victim is trapped, shocking acts of degradation occur, which are usually videotaped and posted

online. Steele shows us actual footage of a gay man having bottles of urine poured over his head. Another is forced to sodomize himself with a bottle.

In a Russia where President Vladimir Putin signed a draconian law making it a crime to promote any positive images of the gay community, members of Occupy Pedophilia are free to torture people openly and with total impunity. They giggle and laugh at Steele’s camera, and at their own camera, as a weeping gay man refuses to reveal his name.

“Are you gay or bisexual?” they ask him.

“Do your parents know? Will you lose your job?” The interrogator freely admits that her

intent is to destroy his life. Her comrades nod in approval.

Earlier in the film we meet a married father who spends as much time as he can online looking for gay men he can out. He also goes after straight allies. He also says that he wants to destroy gay people’s lives. They have no right to be in his country, he says.

The police routinely do nothing, even when LGBT people are bashed.

Steele visits a lesbian couple in their home.

They have three children, and live in fear that the government might take away their kids.

The faces of the family are blurred for their own safety.

Out on the street, small numbers of LGBT people attempt to protest the inhumane treatment they’re being subjected to. As passersby insult them, we see the magnitude of the inexplicable hate the average Russian feels for its LGBT community. This isn’t the “love the sinner hate the sin” approach of American anti-gay churches. This is “We hate you. We want to hurt you.”

Steele and Matt Bomer, the film’s narrator, offer little explanation for this escalation in anti-LGBT hate across the country. Rather, they simply present what is. It’s a disturbing portrait of a sick society and it’s brutalization of a people who need our help.

On Stands NOW!

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Datebook

Theater Christiana Lilly

Calendar@SFGN.com

broward county * Kon Jo: The Spirit of Courage

The People plays Oct. 16th Foster at the Adrienne Arst Center.

States. Tickets $35. Call 954-678-1396 or visit EmpireStage.com.

The Marvelous Wonderettes

Through Nov. 23 at the Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. Head to Springfield High School’s 1958 prom where four girls, the “wonderettes” sing hits from the ‘50s and ‘60s as they dream of their future. Tickets $45. Call 954462-0222 or visit BrowardCenter.org.

Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. The palm beach county Japanese musical tradition of taiko drumming tells the story of the Ronin warrior. Benefits the Children’s Diagnostic & Treatment Center. Andrew Kennedy Tickets $25 to $75. Call 954-462-0222 or visit Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Delray Center for the BrowardCenter.org.

Performing Arts, 51 Swinton Ave. in Delray Beach. The half British, half Colombian * Richard Marx comedian will have you laughing in both Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. at Parker Playhouse, 707 NE English and Spanish.Tickets $20. Call 561-243Eighth St. in Fort Lauderdale. The man who 7922 or visit DelrayCenterfortheArts.org. ruled pop ballads in the ‘80s and ‘90s performs hits like “Right here Waiting,” “Hold on to Mame the Nights,” and “Now and Forever.” Tickets Oct. 9 to 26 at the Lake Worth Playhouse, in $37.50 to $182.50. Call 954-462-0222 or visit Lake Worth. The wealthy Mame Dennis’s cushy ParkerPlayhouse.com. lifestyle is in for a change when the son of her

Photo: Foster The People Tour

1700 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. The duo perform in support of the 9 Dead Alive US tour. Tickets $59.50. Call 305-673-7300 or visit FillmoreMB.com.

late brother comes to live with her during the * Peter and the Starcatcher * The Willie Brown and Friends Depression. Tickets $29 to $35 with dinner Oct. 9 to 26 at the Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Gospel Comedy Live Tour packages available. Call 561-586-6410 or visit Biscayne Blvd. in Miami. Twelve actors take Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Miramar Cultural Center, 2400 Civic Center Place in Miramar. A Christian comedy show starring Willie Brown, Nikita B, Vyck Cooley, and Chris Clark. Tickets $25. Call 954-602-4500 or visit MiramarCulturalCenter. org.

* A Tribute to Diaghilev

Oct. 11 to 12 at the Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. In honor of the 100th anniversary of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” a collection of ballet pieces by the Russian composer. Tickets $30. Call 954-462-0222 or visit BrowardCenter.org.

* An Evening with Cheap Trick

Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Parker Playhouse, 707 NE Eighth St. in Fort Lauderdale. Their hit “I Want You to Want Me” has been covered countless times, but no one does it quite like they do.

Tickets $37.50 to $63. Call 954-462-0222 or visit ParkerPlayhouse.com.

Annie

Through Oct. 19 at the Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. America’s favorite redhead comes to Fort Lauderdale in the musical that will have you singing along to “It’s A Hard Knock Life” and “Tomorrow.” Tickets $34.75 to $114.50. Call 954-462-0222 or visit BrowardCenter.org.

Jamaica Farewell

Through Oct. 19 at Empire Stage, 1140 N. Flagler Drive in Fort Lauderdale. Debra Ehrhardt tells the story of her leaving revolution-torn Jamaica in the ‘70s to pursue her dreams in the United

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on the roles of more than 100 characters and scenery pieces in the story of how Peter Pan became the boy who never grew up. Tickets * Our Town Oct. 10 to Nov. 9 at Palm Beach Dramaworks, $45. Call 305-949-6722 or visit ArshtCenter.

201 Clematis St. in West Palm Beach. Based org. on the novel, the ordinary day-to-day lives of Grover’s Corners’ residents are the focus of * Gov’t Mule this play. Tickets $62. Call 561-514-4042 or visit Oct. 10 at 8:30 p.m. at the Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. For 20 PalmBeachDramaworks.com. years, the band has been playing Southern rock jam for its fans. Tickets $49 to $60.50. Call 305* The Charlie Daniels Band Oct. 11 at 8 p.m. at the Kravis Center, 701 673-7300 or visit FillmoreMB.com.

Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach. Iconic for their song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” * The Cuban Spring the southern rock band has many other songs Oct. 10 to Nov. 2 at the South Miami-Dade in its repertoire. Tickets $15 to $95. Call 561-832- Cultural Arts Center’s New Theatre, 10950 SW 211 St. in Cutler Bay. Family drama is 7469 or visit Kravis.org. started by secrets, intensified by generational * Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia differences, and highlights the sacrifices to live in a democracy. Tickets $26 to $31. Call 305Line and Tyler Farr Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Cruzan Amphitheatre, 443-5909 or visit new-theatre.org.

601 Sansbury Way #7 in West Palm Beach. Get out your country gear for a night of southern * The Choreographers Ball fun a la “Cruise.” Tickets $63 to $1,101. Call 561- Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, 3385 NE 188th St. in 795-8883 or visit CruzanAmphitheatre.net.

Aventura. An annual tribute to the area’s best choreographers, dancers, and performing arts Free Friday Concerts Fridays at 7:30 p.m. at the Delray Beach Center companies. Tickets $20 to $50. Call 305-466for the Arts, 51 N. Swinton Ave. in Delray Beach. 8002 or visit AventuraCenter.org.

Enjoy live music from the comfort of your picnic blanket or lawn chair every week, for free! Call * Cem Yilmaz Oct. 12 at 8 p.m. at the Fillmore Miami Beach, 561-243-7922 or visit DelrayArts.org.

1700 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. Turkish miami-dade county stand-up comedian, actor and filmmaker.

Tickets $121.50 to $178.50. Call 305-673-7300 or visit FillmoreMB.com.

Rodrigo y Gabriela Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. at the Fillmore Miami Beach, LakeWorthPlayhouse.org.

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SouthFloridaGayNews

* Lyle Lovett and His Acoustic Group

Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. at the Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd. in Miami. As a singer, composer and actor, Lovett is a triple threat on the stage. Tickets $39 to $95. Call 305-949-6722 or visit ArshtCenter.org.

* Foster the People

Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. at the Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave. in Miami Beach. The band that brought you “Pumped Up Kicks” performs after an opening set by Soko. Tickets $50 to $61.50. Call 305-673-7300 or visit FillmoreMB.com.

* Romeo & Juliet

Oct. 17 to 19 at the Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd. in Miami. The tragic story of star-crossed lovers is performed by the Miami City Ballet to Prokofiev’s score. Tickets $20 to $97. Call 305-949-6722 or visit ArshtCenter.org.

Mothers and Sons

Through Oct. 19 at GableStage at the Biltmore, 1200 Anastasia Ave. in Coral Gables. A woman makes a surprise visit to New York at the home of her late son’s partner -- who is now married to another man and has a child. Tickets $40 to $55. Call 304-445-1119 or visit GableStage.org.

PAMM Outdoor Music Series

Third Thursdays at the Perez Art Museum Miami, 101 W. Flagler St. in Miami. Come out for live music from DJs and musicians by the bay. Drink specials available. Free with museum admission. Call 305-375-3000 or visit PAMM.org.

The Big Show

Fridays and Saturdays at 9 p.m. at Just the Funny Theater, 3119 Coral Way in Miami. A collection of comedy mixing the likes of improvisation and sketches. Tickets $12. Call 305-693-8669 or visit JustTheFunny.com. * Denotes New Listing

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Datebook

Community Christiana Lilly Calendar@SFGN.com

broward county * I Am Jazz

Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. at Stonewall Museum – Wilton Manors Gallery, 2157 Wilton Drive, Wilton Manors.

Author presentation with Jessica Herthel, director of the the Stonewall National Education Project, with Jazz Jennings, a transgender youth. The children’s literature tells the story of Jazz’s experience of being transgender.

* Loss, Sex & Love

Oct. 9 to 31 at the Pride Center, 2040 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. Works by Rosalia Curbelo created after the death of her husband by HIV, turning to art to fulfill her need for sex and love. Free. Call 954-4639005 or visit pridecenterflorida.org.

Fort Lauderdale Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Oct. 10 to 12 and Oct. 16 to 19 at the Classic Gateway Theatre, 1820 E. Sunrise Blvd. and Cinema Paradiso, 503 SE Sixth St. in Fort Lauderdale. LGBT films spanning from drama to comedy, as well as special events planned. Visit FLFGG.com.

* K9 Water Festival

Oct. 11 and 12 at Topeekeegee Yugnee Park, 3300 N. Park Road in Hollywood. Bring out your pooches for a fun romp in the water at Castaway Park! Tickets $5 for 50 minutes. Only dogs 25 pounds and under will be permitted for the final session of the day. Call 954-3578811 or visit broward.org/parks

* Kink 101 and the LBTQ SM Community

Oct. 14 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Pride Center, 2040 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. LBTQ women are invited to learn more about kink and exploring your fantasies. Free. Call 954-463-9005 or visit pridecenterflorida.org.

* Brazil!

Oct. 15 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Bailey Contemporary Arts, 41 NE First St. in Pompano Beach. Brazilian food from Giraffas, free wine, artists and outdoor art installations, children’s workshops, and more. Call 954-284-0141 or visit bacapompano.org.

* Senior Health Expo

Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Pride Center, 2040 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. More than 50 vendors from the medical, senior living, social services, finance, legal and other sectors.

Plus, flu shots, and tests for HIV, hearing, sight, cholesterol, and more. Free. Call 954-463-9005 or visit pridecenterflorida.org.

Gender Bender Youth Group

Mondays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at SunServe Campus, 1480 SW Ninth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. A group for LGBT youth 13 to 21 to discuss gender, gender expression, binary systems, friendship, family and whatever else comes up! Free. Visit SunServeYouth.com

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Safe “T” Transgender/Gender Variant Group

Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at SunServe South, 2312 Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors. Those who consider themselves to be transgender, transsexual or gender queer are invited to join this drop in support group. Call 954-764-5150 or visit SunServe.org.

PFLAG

Tuesdays in Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs and Southwest Ranches. A support group for parents of LGBT youth 13 to 21. Free. Visit SunServeYouth.com for dates and locations.

L.I.F.E. Project

Tuesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Pride Center, 2040 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. Get the tools you need to treat your HIV positive diagnosis and live a full, productive life. Free. Call 954-463-9005 or visit PrideCenterFlorida.org.

Man2Man Discussion

Mondays 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Pride Center, 2040 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. A weekly informal discussion group among gay men of all backgrounds.

Contact John Beuscher at 954-202-4469 or email johnnybushwick@aol.com.

American Sign Language 2

Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at the Pride South Florida office, 4233 NE Sixth Ave. in Oakland Park. $30 donation to Pride South Florida and Florida Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf. Enroll to bbmpride@gmail.com.

GayWrites

Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. at the Stonewall Library, 1300 E. Sunrise Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale. Come join us and write your memoir, poem, blog, novel or short story. Free. Email garri1@earthlink.net

Farmers Market

Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. at Whole Foods, 14956 Pines Blvd. in Pembroke Pines. Local vendors will be selling locally grown produce, homemade products, and other unique yummies at the west end of the parking lot every Thursday. Call 954-392-3500.

STD/STI Testing

Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Pride Center, 2040 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. Do you know your STD status? Get tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in a safe environment. Call 954-566-3553 or email freeHIVtest@pridecenterflorida.org.

Men in Community

Thursdays from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at SunServe South, 2312 Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors. A psychotherapy group for men focusing on connectivity and relationships. An intake appointment is necessary, call Tom Wasik at 631-848-0696. Visit SunServe.org.

Gay Male Empowerment

Thursdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Pride Center, 2040 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. A group discussion of the various issues of being a gay man and one’s personal growth. Free. Call 954-353-9155 or visit PrideCenterFlorida.org.

Healthy Living Workshop

Thursdays from 7:15 to 8:45 p.m. at Fusion, 2304 NE Seventh Ave. in Wilton Manors. Learn different ways to lead a healthier, happier life. Call 954-630-1655 or visit S-Men.org. soflagaynews //

Young Adult LGBT

Fridays from 7:15 to 9 p.m. at the Pride Center, 2040 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors. A social group and current events discussion session for young LGBT people 18 to 35. Visit PrideCenterFlorida.org.

Las Olas Sunday Market

Sundays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the YOLO plaza, 333 E. Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale.

Browse through fresh produce, baked goods, flowers, plants, paella, jewelry and more. Visit DowntownFortLauderdaleCivicAssociation.org.

SunServe Youth Group

Tuesdays and Thursdays in Fort Lauderdale, Southwest Ranches, Coral Springs and Hollywood.

A support group and night of fun for LGBT youth 13 to 21. Free. Visit SunServeYouth.com for dates and times.

Survivor Support

First and third Wednesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Broward Health Imperial Point Hospital cafeteria, 6401 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. Find support from counselors and peers who have lost loved ones to suicide. Call the Florida Initiative for Suicide Prevention at 954-384-0344 or visit FISPOnline.org.

Beachcounty palm Palm beach Lunch & Learn: Our Town

Oct. 8 at 11:45 a.m. at Tin Fish, 118 S. Clematis St. in West Palm Beach. A lunch followed by a discussion at the theater about how Palm Beach Dramaworks made “Our Town” happen. Tickets $25 guild members, $30 nonmembers. Call 561-514-4042, ext. 2 or visit PalmBeachDramaworks.org.

* How Climate Change is Affecting Floridians and What Can be Done Now

Oct. 9 at 6:45 p.m. at First UUPB Ministers Hall, 635 Prosperity Farms Road in North Palm Beach. A presentation about how climate change is affecting Florida, the Federal Climate Action Plan, and what can be done. Tickets $10 for community dinner at 6 p.m. Call or email Marika Stone at 561-625-8753 or yogimarika@gmail.com.

LGBT Business Expo

Oct. 11 from Noon to 3 p.m. at Compass GLCC, 201 N. Dixie Highway in Lake Worth. Participate in resume workshops, educational sessions, health screenings, business booths, raffles, and more in honor of National Coming Out Day. Free. Call 561-533-9699, ext. 4018 or visit CompassGLCC.com.

* Afterlife: Tombs and Treasures of Ancient Egypt Oct. 11 at South Florida Science Museum, 4801 Dreher Trail North in West Palm Beach. Explore the world of the afterlife with a screening of “The Mummy,” activities, a mummy wrapping contest, and more. Tickets $20. Call 561-832-1988 or visit SFScienceCenter.org.

LGBT Business Expo

Oct. 11 from Noon to 3 p.m. at Compass GLCC, 201 N. Dixie Highway in Lake Worth. Participate in resume workshops, educational sessions, health screenings, business booths, raffles, and more in honor of National Coming Out Day. Free. Call 561-533-9699, ext. 4018 or visit CompassGLCC.com.

SouthFloridaGayNews

Voices of Pride Auditions

Mondays through Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. at Compass GLCC, 201 N. Dixie Highway in Lake Worth. Looking to join the choir? Come out for open auditions every Monday for one month during rehearsals. Email info@voicesofpride.org or visit VoicesofPride.org

Wheels and Heels: The Big Noise Around Little Toys Through Oct. 26 at the Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave. in West Palm Beach. A look at two iconic childhood toys: the miniature car and the “teenage doll,” or Barbie. Free with admission. Call 561-8326196 or visit Norton.org.

Zumba Fitness

Mondays at 6 p.m. at Compass GLCC, 201 N. Dixie Highway in Lake Worth. Get moving with a certificated Zumba instructor for an infusion of exercise and dance moves. Donation of $5 or more.

Call 561-324-1626 or visit CompassGLCC.com.

Sober Sisters

Mondays at 6:15 p.m. at Lambda North, 18 S. J St. in Lake Worth. A support and discussion group for female recovering alcoholics. Visit LambdaNorth.net.

Out of the Closet, Into the Light

Mondays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at MCC of the Palm Beaches, 4857 Northlake Blvd. in Palm Beach Gardens.

AA for the LGBT community. Free. Call 561-775-5900 or visit MCCPalmBeach.org

miami-dade Miami county Full Moon Fitness: Spinning

Oct. 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, 455 Grand Bay Drive in Key Biscayne. Get your heart racing and your body working with this spin class under the stars. Cost $25. RSVP to 305-365-4157.

Rainbow Circle

Mondays from 6 to 8 p.m. at the University of Miami Flipse Building #302, 5665 Ponce de Leon Drive in Coral Gables. An open discussion about coming out, relationships, peer pressure, bullying, depression and more. Free. Visit Pridelines.org.

HIV Support Group

Wednesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. at South Beach AIDS Project, 1234 Washington Ave. Ste. 200 in Miami Beach.

A support group for those who are HIV positive. Free.

Call 305-535-4733, ext. 301 or email support@sobeaids. org.

Modern Buddhist Meditation

Mondays and Tuesdays at the Drolma Kadampa Buddhist Center, 1273 Coral Way in Miami. Find inner peace with instruction on meditation with Buddhist monk, Gen Kelsang Nurbu. Cost $10 and $5 per class.

Call 786-529-7137.

* Monster Masquerade

Oct. 17 from 8 p.m. to midnight at Zoo Miami, 12400 SW 152nd St. in Miami. A spooky night of open bars, haunted hauses, costume contests, and more! Tickets $65 presale, $75 at the door. Must be 21 and older. Call 305-255-5551 or visit zoomiami.org.

Sex Talk

Second and fourth Thursdays at Pridelines, 9525 NE Second Ave. #401 in Miami Shores. Conduct outreach events, record video messages, participate in a series of performances, and organize special events with a purpose. Free. Visit Pridelines.org.

* Denotes New Listing

Back to School with Break away from the books & check out EDGE for the latest LGBT news, entertainment and hot photos!

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10.8.2014 //57

SFGN Classified$ To place a Classified Ad, call Jason Gonzales at 954.530.4970 or visit SFGN.com

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AFFORDABLE AWESOME MASSAGE BY JIM Offering Swedish, Deep Tissue, Sports and LomiLomi Massage for Men; in a very comfortable, relaxed and Private Massage Studio, NOW conveniently located in Wilton Manors on NE 26th Street, with plenty of free parking. Same Day appointments are welcome; please call Jim, 954-600-5843 email: info@massagebyjim.com or visit my website for testimonials, rates and more. GREAT OPENING SPECIAL NOW AVAILABLE! www.massagebyjim.com Licensed and Certified MM22293

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vacation rentals “CASA BRISA” BEAUTIFUL VACATION HOME LOCATED ON CANAL IN FORT LAUDERDALE $150/NIGHT Beautiful Vacation home for rent in the “Venice of America”. This tropical home comes with all the amenities you will need to enjoy a beautiful vacation in the sun. Home includes two spacious bedrooms. A beautiful Florida room over looking the canal. A fully equipped kitchen is perfect for the nights you want to eat-in. We supply all the fresh linens and towels you will need during your stay. Includes cable television with 200+ channels. Full washer and dryer are also included. Three kayaks are also available for use during your stay. More information and photos available upon request. Call 305-409-7170 or email ecorosa@bellsouth.net DAYTONA BEACH Beach side, elegant 1929 Historic Spanish Mansion, private walled pool area. four blocks to beach. Near boardwalk, shops, bars and restaurants 386-248-2020. www.thevillabb.com

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Perfectly suited for a roommate. Avail Oct 1st, phone 954-563-1576

rent/lease fort lauderdale 1 BEDROOM / GAY FRIENDLY COMPLEX $785.00: 1/1 corner unit apartment in small Friendly complex on NE 15 Ave,Close to Sunrise Blvd, all tile floors, Walk to Publix, bike to Beach.

Available for Sept 1. Contact Steve 954-873-2830 MIDDLE RIVER TERRACE 2/1.5 TOWNHOUSE: Large unit 2/1.5 updated unit. Updated bathroom, Tile floors, Central A/C, D/W, microwave, great location in quiet complex. $1000/Mo. F/L/S 954270-0304 2BD/2BA - POINSETTIA HEIGHTS - FRENCH DOORS TO POOL: A beautiful 2BR/2BA. Duplex surrounded by lush gardens and well maintained landscaping. Updated kitchen with granite counters, terrazzo floors large closets, central A/C, washer/dryer. Small pets allowed. Nonsmoking. Perfectly suited for a roommate. Avail.

Oct. 1st Phone 954-563-1576 3/2 EAST FORT LAUDERDALE: Owner of small complex’s unit. Like a house. Tile, fenced, French doors, new appliances, Small pet okay.

Gated back yard. Parking for 2 cars. Coin laundry. 1.5 mi. to the beach. $1350/MO 954624-6155 LARGE 2BD HOUSE W/POOL: BIG house.

Raised living room, family room, eat-in kitchen, screened porch by pool. Must be gainfully employed. Fenced large back yard. $1250/mo F/L/S Call Butch 954-632-6639 FURNISHED 1/1 - NEAR BOARDWALK / WILTON MANORS: Great Furnished 1/1 $975/ mo. Ready To Move In. Central AC, Cable,Tile Flooring Except Bedroom, Queen Bed, Breakfast Bar, Screened Patio. Pool, BBQ & Car Wash Area, Intercom Building. No Pets No Smoking Info & Photos Call Elier @ Premier Realty Team 786-718-9921

LARGE PRIVATE RENOVATED 1BD/1BA: Large private renovated 1/1 apt. fireplace, bedroom with sitting or desk area, dining area gated backyard, patio, W/D, kitchen lots of cabinet space D/W, microwave, central air, pet allowed. Awesome location in heart of WM steps to Wilton Drive. $1700/mo + utilities. 954-914-2467 NEAR STORKS CAFE - WILTON MANORS: Large 1BD/1BA, dishwasher, central A/C, ceiling fans, W/D on premises, Quiet Triplex. $850/Mo. F/L/S Call 954-830-1518 2BD/2BA HOUSE IN WILTON MANORS: Next to Stork’s. You will have a private entrance into a 1BD/1BA suite w/small kitchenette. All util. +internet & cable incl. 1 off street parking space. Priv covered patio. W/D avail. $650/month +sec. Background check. $1300 to move in. 954-537-1599

rent/lease oakland park 2BD/2BA GREAT LOCATION: D/W, tile floors, no pets, no smoking. $1300/mo, F/L. Utilities included. Call 954-553-8616.

daniel.pye

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