Watermark Issue 25.04: Give Me My Roses

watermark Your LGBTQ Life.

issue 25.04 • feb. 22 - mar. 7, 2018

WatermarkOnline.com

Give Me My Roses An homAge to 5 generAtions oF blAck entertAiners in orlAndo

Also inside: Margaret Cho Comes to Tampa Bay daytona beaCh • orlando • tampa • st. petersburg • Clearwater • sarasota

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presents

An Evening with Tiffany The pop-star legend and perennial fan-favorite earned two number one hit singles, “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Could’ve Been” and set a record as the youngest female artist to top the Billboard charts with her debut album.

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

Official spOnsOr

dePArtments 7 // Publisher’s desk 8 // orlAndo news 10 // tAmPA bAy news 12 // stAte news 13// nAtion & world news 19 // tAlking Points 43 // community cAlendAr 45 // tAmPA bAy out+About 47 // orlAndo out+About 48 // tAmPA bAy mArketPlAce 49 // wedding bells/ Announcements 50 // orlAndo mArketPlAce 54 // lAst PAge

PAGE

21

When I first started you could have an entire cast of white entertainers, but you could only have one or two black ones. Never an entire cast.

— willie h. king jr., parliamenT house drag enTerTainer Vaughn greThchen

on the cover

PAGE cho-sen one:

37

PAGE GIVE ME MY

21

ROSES: In celebration

of Black History Month, Watermark pays tribute to five generations of black entertainers in Orlando.

Photo by Jake Stevens

scAn Qr code For

wAtermArkonline.com

Comedian Margaret Cho on her new tour, bi-erasure and our LGBTQ family.

wAtermArk i ssue 25.04 //FebruAry 22 - mArch 7, 2018

thriving youth

PAssed over

olymPic oPPortunity grey mAtters

PAGE HRC hosts 5th annual Time to THRIVE conference on LGBTQ youth in Orlando.

PAGE St. Petersburg Diocese forbids transgender parishioner from attending anniversary mass.

PAGE

read it online!

In addition to a Web site with daily LGBTQ updates, a digital version of each issue of the publication is made available on WatermarkOnline.com

08

10

Tampa Bay’s Steve Blanchard talks about confronting your opponents in the hopes of a better tomorrow.

15

PAGE

Legendary performer Joel Grey headlines the Garden Theatre’s 10-year anniversary celebration.

31

follow us on twitter and instagram at @watermarKonline and liKe us on faCebooK. watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

contributors

publisher’s

rick Claggett publisher

Rick@WatermarkOnline.com

I

desk

consider myself To be a sysTems

guy. I like rules and I like procedure. Systems are in place for a reason. They have been tried, tested and tweaked to produce the best results.

I can even make a case for a system to create a system. I follow the plan and I don’t like to be late.

I drive the speed limit and I follow recipes.

To a degree, I’ve always been this way. When a teacher left the classroom, I was the one asked to take down the names of unruly students. Naturally, I became a hall monitor and was on track to become part of the elite crosswalk security team.

I took pride in being a good student and a good son, and I didn’t like it when anyone thought otherwise. I remember in the first grade my class was getting ready for an ice cream party. Students who stepped out of line weren’t invited

wAtermArk stAFF

to the party, so I made sure I was on my best behavior. Especially since my mom had volunteered to help with the event.

Two days before the party, the class was taking a test. The girl who sat in front of me turned around and asked me if I was having trouble with one of the questions. This was a clear violation of the rules and it was my job to let her know. As I was telling her she can’t talk during a test, the teacher saw me and told me the same thing. My name was written on the board under the heading “These

Founder and Guiding Light: Tom Dyer • Tom@WatermarkOnline.com Owner & Publisher: Rick Claggett • Ext. 110 • Rick@WatermarkOnline.com Business Manager: Kathleen Harper • Ext. 101 • Kathleen@WatermarkOnline.com CFL Bureau Chief: Jeremy Williams • Ext. 106 • Jeremy@WatermarkOnline.com Tampa Bay Bureau Chief: Ryan Williams-Jent • Ext. 302 • Ryan@WatermarkOnline.com Multimedia Assistant: Melody Maia Monet • Ext. 100 • Maia@WatermarkOnline.com Art Director: Jake Stevens • Ext. 109 • Jake@WatermarkOnline.com Creative Assistant: Jason Donnelly • Ext. 102 • AdProduction@WatermarkOnline.com Proofreading: Ed Blaisdell

People Have No Self Control” and I was banned from the ice cream extravaganza. I didn’t know what self-control was but I knew everyone had it but me, and that crushed my little rule-loving heart.

My family began to move around a lot and I hit a little rebellious phase. My grades dropped and I was more concerned with making friends than being my idea of “good.”

By the time I hit high school I got back to my roots. I learned I could achieve my goals without being authoritarian about it. I learned that there could be exceptions to rules and improvements to systems.

I’m reminded of this lately as I see divisiveness grow in our country.

I’m a member of Generation X. As young adults we were labeled as lazy and slackers. Sound familiar? I hear too much talk about how Millennials are lazy and entitled. We have a handful of Millennials working at Watermark and I don’t see it that way. They are hard-working, visionary and they are the future of this company. Sadly, I’ve started to see a backlash toward the older generation. Phrases are thrown around that the older generation has failed us. Those that work at Watermark and are older have immeasurable value to us. They have years of experience for us to draw upon. It appears that generalities form from generation to generation, but it’s really less about Millennials vs. Baby Boomers than it is just about older people thinking younger people are lazy and younger people thinking older people are failures.

Let’s throw generalities out the window. There are exceptions to every rule, even for a systems guy who hates to be late. Full disclosure, I’m late on my deadline for this column.

Leadership is not defined by tearing down one group to raise another. Leadership is defined by

Sales Director: Danny Garcia Ext. 108 • Danny@WatermarkOnline.com Senior Orlando Account Manager: Sam Callahan Ext. 103 • Sam@WatermarkOnline.com Orlando Account Manager: Dillan Ramirez Ext. 105 • Dillan@WatermarkOnline.com Tampa Bay Account Manager: Debbie Reeves Ext. 301 • Debbie@WatermarkOnline.com Nat’l Ad Representative: Rivendell Media Inc. • 212-242-6863

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

bringing people together. If the majority of Americans believe in sensible gun legislation, then that means there are allies in Baby Boomers and Millennials, Democrats and Republicans. In any cause, we need to find our allies and collaborate towards a system that works. We need to focus our passion on uniting like-thinkers, not dividing those with whom we disagree. Listen actively and act passionately.

It was active listening that brought about the In-Depth story for this issue. Ms. Darcel Stevens called us out on our lack of coverage of both the black community and

I didn’t know what self-control was but I knew everyone had it but me, and that crushed my little rule-loving heart.

the drag queens and entertainers that thrive in Central Florida. The message was accurate and we heard it. We will actively work to do a better job. For starters, we honor the many generations of black drag entertainers living in the Central Florida area with long overdue profiles of their success and future.

Also in this issue, Watermark had the opportunity to speak with some big-name entertainers: the legendary Joel Grey and the hilarious Margaret Cho. In local news, HRC brings their annual Time to THRIVE conference to Orlando, while a Tampa Bay transgender woman and her wife are denied access to a church celebration.

We strive to bring you a variety of stories, your stories. I hope you enjoy this latest issue.

orlAndo oFFice 414 N. Ferncreek Ave. Orlando, FL 32803 TEL: 407-481-2243 FAX: 407-481-2246

tAmPA bAy oFFice TEL: 813-655-9890 FAX: 813-849-2986

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

alma j. hill is a writer, an actress, a mother and a jack of all trades.

Hill has recently relocated to the Tampa Bay area. Page 21

sTeVe blanchard

is a former Watermark editor turned media relations coordinator at Moffitt Cancer Center. He returns with his viewpoint column, Fit to Print. Page 15

maia moneT is a photographer at Southern Nights in Orlando and a singer with the band Mad Transit. Page 17

sAbrinA AmbrA, scottie cAmPbell, kristA ditucci, miguel Fuller, divine grAce kirk hArtlAge, sAmuel Johnson, JAson leclerc, stePhen miller, mAiA monet, dAvid morAn, greg stemm, dr. steve yAcovelli, michAel wAnZie,

PhotogrAPhy briAn becnel, nick cArdello, Angie Folks, bruce hArdin, Julie milFord, trAvis moore, chris stePhenson, lee vAndergriFt, tinkerFluFF

distribution lvnliF2 distributing, lisA JordAn, Jill bAtes, ken cArrAwAy CONTENTS of WATERMARK are protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publisher.

Unsolicited article submissions will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Although WATERMARK is supported by many fine advertisers, we cannot accept responsibility for claims made by advertisers.

Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles, advertising, or listing in WATERMARK is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such persons or members of such organizations.

WATERMARK is published every second Thursday. Subscription rate is $55 (1st class) and $26 (standard mail).

The official views of WATERMARK are expressed only in editorials. Opinions offered in signed columns, letters and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the newspaper’s owner or management. We reserve the right to edit or reject any material submitted for publication.

WATERMARK is not responsible for damages due to typographical errors, except for the cost of replacing ads created by WATERMARK that have such errors.

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7

central florida news

Anti-lgbtQ ministry to host AdoPtion event in orlAndo randa Griffin

O

rlando | Focus on the Family, a global Christian ministry with a notorious anti-LGBTQ conviction, announced that they are coming to Central Florida April 28 to host an adoption event at First Baptist Orlando.

The event is “an opportunity to educate families about the adoption process and connect them with local adoption agencies,” but members of the LGBTQ community are skeptical about inviting the hate group into the community.

In response to the emerging population of gay and lesbian couples trying to adopt, Focus on the Family claims nontraditional couples threaten the fundamental purposes of adoption. Glenn Stanton, director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family, called children of same-sex couples “human guinea pigs” in the “same-sex family experiment.”

Michael Gagne, a 20-year foster parent from South Florida, protested a similar event held by the group in Ft. Lauderdale in 2017.

“When Focus on the Family came to South Florida we protested and spoke out against welcoming hate into our community,” he says. “It scares me that a child would be adopted into a family that wouldn’t be accepting.”

Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, spoke at a Florida Community Leader Luncheon in Orlando Feb. 16 to educate community leaders about the upcoming adoption event in April. The luncheon was a free informational event meant to encourage local churches to get involved in the upcoming event and help spread the word to their congregations and communities.

Local organizations have been invited to participate in the April adoption event as well, including Community Based Care of Central Florida, the leading local agency for children in the child welfare system. Maureen Brockman, vice president of the Community Based Care Foundation, said their focus is on finding supportive homes for children and events like these are typical ways to reach different church communities.

“We’re only taking one side on this issue, and our side is for the kids,” Brockman says. “We saw this as another opportunity to find loving homes for our children.”

Brockman says Focus on the Family wasn’t part of the conversation when Community Based Care initially joined the event, but they aren’t going to turn down any opportunities to help foster kids. CBC is also planning an adoption event in March, working with inclusive churches and the LGBTQ community as an initiative to promote adoption.

As a previous foster parent, Gagne understands the importance of events to raise adoption awareness, but doesn’t think love should be limited to traditional married couples. Focus on the Family excludes the LGBTQ and single-parent communities, who make up a large segment of society who are open to adopting.

“This is about people who may have softened their language against gay people, but their actions still speak louder than words. Their political action committee funds anti-gay groups continually,” says Gagne. “Even though Focus on the Family doesn’t talk so harshly about gay people, their actions certainly do.”

8

youTh supporTers: Betty DeGeneres (L) and Zebra Coalition’s Robin Daily attend HRC’s fifth annual Time to THRIVE conference in Orlando.

PHOTO COURTESY ROBIN DAILY

Thriving Youth HRC hosts 5th annual Time to THRIVE conference on LGBTQ youth in Orlando Jeremy Williams

O

rlando | The Human Rights Campaign, in partnership with the National Education Association and the American Counseling Association, flocked to the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek Feb. 16-18 for the fifth annual Time to THRIVE conference which promotes safety, inclusion and well-being for LGBTQ youth.

This year’s conference was attended by more than 800 youth-serving professionals including teachers, school counselors, administrators, social workers, mental health providers, pediatricians, religious leaders, recreational athletic coaches and youth development staff.

The conference featured 65 unique workshops crafted to provide tools and best practices to the attendees to take back to their schools, offices and organizations in order to work with the LGBTQ youth.

“We always take an intersectional approach when holding Time to THRIVE,” says HRC deputy press secretary Allison Turner. “We try to embrace the fact that a child isn’t just their gender identity or sexual orientation. They have all these

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

identifiers that could cause them to face discrimination differently.”

The three-day conference began just days after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting which left 17 people dead and 15 injured less than 200 miles south of Orlando in Parkland, Florida.

The conference opened remembering the 49 lives lost at the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, during which they held a moment of silence for the victims of the Parkland shooting.

HRC honored several extraordinary advocates during the conference including groundbreaking health care provider Dr. Ximena Lopez; 18-year-old transgender trailblazer Gavin Grimm; and LGBTQ ally, and mother of Ellen herself, Betty DeGeneres.

“I love these conferences,” DeGeneres says. “ I went to [HRC’s Time to THRIVE chair] Vinnie Pompei’s very first conference in San Diego. It was wonderful. I’ve been to Portland and Vegas and now here. I’m getting to be an old timer at these.”

DeGeneres says she continues to support and attend Time to THRIVE because it gets right to the people who can help the youth.

“It’s for educators, and who more important to realize how gay kids need to be protected?” she says. “Principals,

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

counselors, teachers, administrators— they are all here for the kids.”

Among the organizations attending the conference was Central Florida’s Zebra Coalition. The organization not only hosted a youth panel but Community Engagement Coordinator Robin Daily held a presentation on the work Zebra does in Central Florida.

“Being able to do a presentation on coalition work and what we do at Zebra, and to share that information with other organizations, it’s really rewarding,” Daily says.

Zebra Coalition also worked with HRC to invite 100 youth from the Central Florida area to attend the final day of the conference free of charge to see what work the organizations were doing to educate their educators.

“I think it’s important to have educators and people from the industry here, but I really think it’s important for the youth themselves to be invited and see the work that is being done on their part. Some youth don’t even know what HRC is and what they do which amazes me,” Daily says. “They are helping us change laws and make policy. So [it’s important] for the youth to be here and learn what HRC does, and what Equality Florida does and see the work these organizations are doing behind the scenes that I don’t think a lot of them are even aware of.”

With the fifth annual conference wrapped up Pompei is already hard at work planning the next one.

“He told me as soon as this one is over he’ll start right away planning the one for next year in Anaheim, which I’m thrilled about because I live right up the road in Los Angeles,” DeGeneres says with a smile.

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

9

tampa bay news

missing trAnsgender teen Found sAFely AFter Police dePArtment misgendering ryan Williams-Jent

l

argo | A missing transgender teenager has been found safely after being misgendered on the official Largo Police Department Facebook page Feb. 12.

“Help us find runaway Zachary Musgrave,” the police department’s original post, now deleted, read. “He is a Largo High student, 16 years of age.

He has not been seen since Jan. 19. He does not have a vehicle.”

According to the teenager’s mother Rebecca Musgrave Garcia, her transgender daughter is known as Sami and also identifies as Samantha Areia Barly.

The police department’s post prompted her to make a public plea of her own on the social media platform.

“My daughter Sami is missing. Please share,” her post reads. “The local police department has her listed as her birth name but that’s not the name she goes by, nor the way she looks when away from her father.

Please help us find her.”

Musgrave Garcia advises Watermark that Sami was misgendered by her father. The two are divorced, and the Wesley Chapel resident notes that her daughter lives with her ex-husband. “He calls her Sami,” she says, “but still refers to her as ‘he’.”

“The police have dealt with Sami in the past for running away,” she continues. “They know she identifies as female.”

Musgrave Garcia learned that her daughter was found safely by the police department’s Facebook page prior to the post’s deletion.

Musgrave Garcia was subsequently contacted by the detective overseeing the case, who confirmed that Sami was reported as male, but with an alias of “Sami.” After she was located, the police department’s post was updated to include that “Musgrave has been found safe here in Largo,” with a thank you for the community’s assistance.

The post reflected Sami’s incorrect gender identity until it was deleted. Watermark reached out to the Largo Police Department to confirm that Sami has been found.

As for Sami’s mother, she has a message for officials handling future cases. “Make sure [to present] a true representation of the child in need,” she says.

“You might end up with a body instead of a child because of your mistake.”

She further urges parents of transgender youth not to “limit yourself to one view of your child. People come in all shapes, sizes and identities. For those who embrace their child without limits, I applaud.

For those who see their child through the peephole of society, I’m sorry for you.”

10

50 years:

Arleen (L) and Dr. Jean Batronie review their wedding album on Jan. 15.

The couple’s marriage was blessed in the Catholic Church on Sept. 28, 1968.

PHOTO BY RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT

Passed Over St. Petersburg Diocese forbids transgender parishioner from attending anniversary mass ryan Williams-Jent

B

randon | St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church parishioner Dr. Jean Batronie, who will celebrate 50 years of marriage this year with wife Arleen Batronie, was instructed by St. Petersburg’s Catholic Diocese Feb. 5 not to attend a mass honoring the marital milestone held Feb. 11 because Jean Batronie is transgender.

The “Wedding Jubilee Mass of Thanksgiving with Bishop Gregory Parkes,” held at St. Petersburg‘s Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle, honored “couples throughout the diocese who will celebrate 25, 50 or more years of marriage during 2018.”

The event required a registration process, which the couple completed in mid-January.

Their registration was accepted by St. Francis’ secretary, Jean Batronie tells Watermark, adding that it’s well known that she’s transgender. Jean Batronie, 72, and Arleen Batronie, 68, attended a similar event for their 25 year anniversary in 1993, prior to Jean Batronie’s transition.

“Jean and I knew that there might be talk,” Arleen Batronie says,

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

“because we know that people are still in the dark. But we were planning on attending. We didn’t expect any hoopla or any kind of problem.”

“We registered, there was no problem,” Jean Batronie agrees. “Then I got a call from our pastor that said that ‘the bishop does not want you to go.’ Because I’m transgender. Flat out, there was no hidden agenda. Because I had a sex change.”

Jean Batronie was contacted by Father Edison Bernavas, who she says is new to the church. “His thing was ‘I’m new here, I didn’t know you,’” she recalls, noting his objection about the optics. “He said, ‘when they call your name, two women are going to stand up.’”

Jean Batronie says she told the pastor that the couple didn’t have to stand during the mass, even offering to dress as a man. “He said ‘oh, you can’t do that. You’re a woman.’”

Watermark spoke with Theresa L. Peterson, executive director of communications for the St. Petersburg Diocese, who confirmed the Batronies were instructed not to attend.

“It was not a celebration of civil marriage,” Peterson says. “The Catholic church does not recognize same-sex marriages. Couples who are

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

being recognized and blessed at the Diocese of St. Petersburg Marriage Jubilee Mass are observing a milestone of 25, 50 years or more of the church’s Sacrament of Marriage, as defined by the Catholic church between one man and one woman.

“While the Catholic church loves all men and women as God loves all of His creation,” she further notes, “we cannot bless a marriage between two people of the same sex because the Catholic church does not acknowledge same-sex marriages.”

According to Peterson, the Catholic church “respects others’ views,” but also asks “that the church’s teachings be respected. Central to our core religious beliefs is that marriage has been established by God between a man and a woman. This divine plan, like the gift of marriage itself, is something we receive, not something we construct or redefine to fit our purposes.”

“Their thinking is ancient,” Jean Batronie says, acknowledging that while other churches may be more progressive, she isn’t leaving hers behind. “I was raised in the Catholic church. This is my religion.”

“We’re all under the same God,” Arleen Batronie says. “If God doesn’t judge, why are all these people in the churches judging? You go to church and you go home. What difference does it make if you’re there with your husband or your wife?”

“I’m very proud of this,” Jean Batronie says. “We made a commitment in the Catholic church 50 years ago and in God’s eyes, we’re married. This has got to stop. This kind of stuff has to stop.”

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• Upper respiratory tract infection (sinus, nose, and throat infection) • Bronchitis (swelling in the tubes that carry air to and from your lungs) • Cough • Flatulence (gas) • Increased bilirubin (a waste product when red blood cells break down) For a full list of side effects, please talk to your doctor. Tell your doctor if you have any side effect that bothers you or does not go away.

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Mytesi is a prescription medicine that helps relieve symptoms of diarrhea not caused by an infection (noninfectious) in adults living with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy (ART).

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

11

state news

church sAys gAy teAcher Fired by miAmi cAtholic school Wire report

M

iami | Church officials say a gay schoolteacher has been fired by a Miami Catholic school after marrying her same-sex partner in an apparent violation of church rules.

Archdiocese of Miami officials confirmed to the Miami Herald that first-grade teacher Jocelyn Morffi lost her job at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School Feb. 8, the day after she returned from her Florida Keys wedding.

“This weekend I married the love of my life and unfortunately I was terminated from my job as a result,” Morffi said in a post on social media. “In their eyes I’m not the right kind of Catholic for my choice in partner.”

Several parents say they were surprised and upset at Morffi’s firing. But an archdiocese spokeswoman says Morffi broke her contract under church rules of conduct.

“As a teacher in a Catholic school their responsibility is partly for the spiritual growth of the children,” the spokeswoman said. “One has to understand that in any corporation, institution or organization there are policies and procedures and teachings and traditions that are adhered to.

If something along the way does not continue to stay within that contract, then we have no other choice.”

Same-sex marriage was legalized in Florida by a 2015 judicial ruling. Florida does not have a statewide law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. A Miami-Dade County ordinance that protects LGBT residents from discrimination exempts religious institutions from certain provisions.

JAcksonville city Attorney: chAllenge to gAy rights lAw ‘deFective’

celine wAlker becomes Fourth rePorted trAnsgender homicide victim in 2018 ryan Williams-Jent

j

acksonVille, fla. | Celine Walker became the fourth reported transgender homicide victim this year on Feb. 4, though news of her death was delayed after local police reportedly misgendered her and utilized her birth name in official reports.

Walker, a 36-year-old transgender woman of color, was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound at an Extended Stay America hotel near the St. Johns Town Center. According to transgender advocate Monica Roberts of the TransGriot blog, “the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is claiming they have a policy that does not refer to victims as transgender.”

“We remain committed to ending the senseless violence that disproportionately claims the lives of transgender women of color in Florida and around the nation,” Equality Florida’s statement on Walker’s death reads. “Even as we grieve, we must also organize and educate.”

“We urge law enforcement and

lgbt grouPs condemn FloridA high school shooting Michael K. lavers of The Washington Blade

Wire report

CourTesy of The NaTioNal lGBT Media assoCiaTioN

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acksonVille, fla. | The city attorney in Jacksonville says an initiative intended to challenge a new gay rights law cannot be legally placed on the November ballot.

The Florida Times-Union reports that city general counsel Jason Gabriel said in a memo this week that the initiative is “defective” because it would grant local voters a power they do not have. Gabriel says only the Jacksonville city council has legislative authority.

The conservative group Empower Jacksonville has been collecting signatures in an attempt to get the initiative placed on the November ballot. It would overturn the city’s human rights ordinance, which was changed last year.

Jacksonville’s city council voted 12-6 on Feb. 14, 2017, to expand the city’s HRO to include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, public accommodations and housing.

Empower Jacksonville formed in September with the sole goal of removing the protections from the city’s HRO. An Empower Jacksonville spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

12

the criminal justice system to start investigating transgender murders without negating the identity of the victim and in a manner that allows a clear determination of whether the crime was motivated by anti-transgender hatred,” the organization’s director of transgender equality Gina Duncan says. “The relentless violence against transgender women of color is a national tragedy and we must work together as a community to stop it.”

“It is time to update state hate-crimes laws and local law-enforcement policies to ensure that transgender and gender non-conforming individuals are offered explicit protection,” Duncan continues. “Otherwise, our trans and gender non-conforming community will be further silenced, marginalized, unrecognized and under protected.”

Activists gathered across the state on Feb. 18 in a call for action following Walker’s death. “Trans people are not just murdered randomly, we’re murdered 99 times out of 100 because someone figured out that we were trans and was upset about it,” FSU Professor Dr. Petra

Doan told a local ABC affiliate near Florida’s capitol.

In Jacksonville, friends and supporters of Walker’s gathered at a vigil at Friendship Fountain to raise awareness and remember her life. “I’m here to be the voice for her and all of the rest of the transgender women who don’t have a voice that have been murdered,” transgender activist Paige Mahogany Parks told the city’s News 4. “She lived her life as a woman. She lived her life in peace.”

“Together, Equality Florida, TransAction Florida and the ACLU of Florida support the transgender women of color who are speaking out against the violence and stigma they experience every day,” Equality Florida says. “We must follow the lead of the amazing trans women of color in Jacksonville and across the state who are demanding accountability from a transphobic society bent on eradicating trans women. We must join our trans sisters in the fight for their right to exist free of violence in our country.”

According to a recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, transgender women of color, and specifically black transgender women, account for 72 percent of transgender homicide victims since 2010.

arkland, fla. | LGBT advocacy groups on Feb. 14 condemned the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., that left at least 17 people dead and more than a dozen others injured.

The Pride Center in Wilton Manors, which is located roughly 20 miles southeast of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said in a Facebook post that “at least 17 families and countless loved ones face unspeakable tragedy tonight in Broward County.”

“Our hearts break for the students, teachers, administrators and families at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School,” reads the post. “May they find comfort and strength in the face of untold loss.”

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Equality Florida and the Human Rights Campaign are among the other groups that echoed the Pride Center.

“Equality Florida joins our fellow Floridians and the nation in grieving the 17 lives taken and those injured in yet another school mass shooting,” said Equality Florida in a statement.

A 19-year-old man who was expelled from the high school has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Authorities say the alleged gunman used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle that he legally bought in the shooting.

The shooting took place less than four months after a gunman killed 26 people and injured 20 others inside a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

A gunman on Oct. 1 killed 58 people and injured more than 500 others when he opened fire during a country music festival in Las Vegas.

A gunman killed 49 people inside

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on June 12, 2016.

The Pulse nightclub massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history until the incident in Las Vegas.

“We remain as deeply committed today as we were two years ago, in the aftermath of the massacre at Pulse, to the fight for common sense gun legislation,” said Equality Florida in its statement.

“We are not helpless,” it added.

“We do not have to be hostages to special interests who believe that weapons of war should be available to everyone, anywhere, all the time. We can and we must stop this carnage with laws that are proven to make a difference. This violence will only stop when we decide to stand up to a handful of voices with undue influence. The time has come to make common sense gun safety legislation a litmus test for anyone asking for our votes.”

nation+world news

Army secretary: Soldiers unconcerned about transgender military service Chris Johnson of The Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBT Media Association

W

ASHINGTON | The civilian head of the U.S. Army said soldiers are unconcerned about serving alongside transgender people despite President Donald Trump stoking fear about cohesion in his attempt to ban them from the armed forces, according to ABC News.

Army Secretary Mark Esper said transgender military service “really hasn’t come up” as he’s traveled to U.S. bases at home and abroad when reporters asked if soldiers expressed concerns about transgender service.

Esper, who’s already visited soldiers domestically and abroad in South Korea, Afghanistan and Europe,

reportedly said troops are more likely to express concerns about food quality and pay.

Esper, who assumed office as Army secretary in November, said he met with “six or seven” active-duty trans soldiers in his first 30 days on the job and found their views “helpful” on the issue.

Additionally, Esper said he talked with mixed-gender infantry and cavalry units on transgender service.

Those soldiers, Esper said, told him the issue boiled down to all troops meeting the same standard.

“Everybody wants to be treated with a clear set of standards,” Esper said, adding, “At the end of the day, the Army is a standards-based organization.”

Trump’s policy banning transgender people from the armed forces is supposed to take effect on March 23.

However, multiple courts have issued

orders enjoining the military from enforcing Trump’s directive as a result of litigation filed by LGBT legal groups.

An estimated 15,500 transgender people are serving in the military, according to the Williams Institute. A 2016 RAND Corp. report estimated a smaller number — between 1,320 and 6,630 — are currently on active duty.

One of Trump’s earlier choices for the role of Army secretary, Mark Green, expressed a different view of transgender people. Green said being transgender is a “disease” and as a state legislator in Tennessee spearheaded anti-trans bathroom legislation. Amid outcry from LGBT groups, Green withdrew his nomination, but he’s now running for Congress.

Esper’s predecessor in his role, Eric Fanning, served as Army secretary during the Obama administration and was the first senior defense official to come out in favor of transgender military service. Fanning has supported litigation challenging Trump’s ban and disputed the notions the U.S. military isn’t prepared for transgender service.

that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense under the laws of this state.”

The Senate Education Policy Committee voted Feb. 14 to delete that phrase. The bill now moves to the Alabama Senate.

“It clears up some of the language in the act right now that declares homosexuality a criminal offense. It also changes some of the language to be medically accurate,” said bill sponsor Sen. Tom Whatley, a Republican from Auburn.

The Alabama bill would maintain the emphasis on abstinence in sex education.

The section of the 1992 law describing homosexuality as a criminal offense is a reference to the state’s anti-sodomy law, which has since been ruled unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 ruled that such laws were an invasion of privacy and unconstitutional.

State Rep. Patricia Todd, the only openly gay member of the Alabama Legislature, has unsuccessfully pushed in the past to strike the language from Alabama law.

A spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization, said it is monitoring the Alabama legislation.

have asked to file a brief with the Kentucky Supreme Court in the case involving Hands-On Originals.

The company refused an order in 2012 from Lexington’s Gay and Lesbian Services Organization for t-shirts in advance of the city’s Gay Pride Festival.

The Lexington Human Rights Commission ruled the company violated a city ordinance banning

discrimination based on sexual orientation. A state judge and the Court of Appeals both reversed those rulings. The Kentucky Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.

Bevin argues Kentucky should protect the right of citizens to act according to their conscience.

Panel moves to strike anti-gay phrase in Alabama sex ed law Wire Report

M

ONTGOMERY, Ala. | Alabama lawmakers took the first step to strike anti-gay language from the state’s sex education law that says students should be taught that homosexuality is both socially unacceptable and illegal.

Although sex education is optional in Alabama’s public schools, a 1992 law sets requirements for programs. The 1992 law says programs should encourage abstinence and put “an emphasis, in a factual manner and from a public health perspective,

Governor: Company shouldn’t have to make gay pride shirts Wire Report

F

RANKFORT, Ky. | Kentucky’s Republican governor is urging the state’s highest court to rule in favor of a company whose owner refused to print t-shirts for a gay rights festival because of his Christian beliefs.

Attorneys for Gov. Matt Bevin

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in other news Trump judicial nominee called same-sex marriage ‘an assault on nature’ President Trump is facing calls to withdraw yet another judicial nominee who was recently revealed to have stated anti-LGBT views. Gordon Giampietro, whom Trump nominated for a position as a federal judge in Wisconsin, called the Supreme Court’s 2015 same-sex marriage ruling “an assault on nature” and “against God’s plan.” At one point during an interview with Lydia LoCoco, Giampietro called same-sex relationships “troubled” and affirmed children raised by opposite-sex parents fare better — despite studies and information debunking that notion.

u.s. Lawmakers demand meeting on anti-trans rollbacks Condemning the rollback of transgender rights in the Trump administration, lawmakers led by Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (D-Mass) are seeking a meeting with civil rights officials in federal agencies “to end the current pattern of publicly-funded and government-sanctioned discrimination.” A letter was sent, addressed to the heads of eight federal departments, calling for a roundtable meeting on transgender issues with each of those agencies’ directors of the Office of Civil Rights. The letter provided evidence of transgender rollbacks such as Trump’s military ban and the Justice Department’s disavowal of Title VII protections for transgender people.

Another Trump budget, another attempt to cut HIV/AIDS programs President Trump’s proposed $4.4 trillion budget for fiscal year 2019 is mostly characterized by escalating deficits, but also calls for varying degrees of cuts to HIV/AIDS programs reminiscent of his earlier request. An estimated 1.2 million people have HIV/AIDS in the United States and 37 million have the disease worldwide. Substantial reductions are proposed for Medicaid, which would be cut by $1.1 trillion over the next decade. That program is important to low-income people with HIV/AIDS because an estimated 40 percent of Americans with the disease receive care under Medicaid. Even though the administration has proposed these cuts to HIV/AIDS programs, lawmakers need not agree to them and likely won’t.

Lush launches canada campaign for trans rights including a charity bath melt The #TransRightsAreHumanRights campaign was launched

by Lush in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity and the National Center for Transgender Equality on Feb. 15. The cosmetics brand introduced a new item, Inner Truth Bath to its collection where 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to the National Center for Transgender Equality and the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity. Educational videos have been released on Lush’s YouTube channel featuring transgender people sharing their advice and stories, and informational pamphlets will be dispersed on how to be a better ally.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

viewpoint

Steve Blanchard

Fit For Print Rippon and Pence, a missed opportunity

T

he olympics are

coming to an end, and although politics are supposed to be set aside for the international games, they still manage to float up to the top and make headlines.

So it was no surprise when two openly gay United States athletes, figure skater Adam Rippon and skier Gus Kenworthy, made headlines right at the start of the games with an Instagram photo of them embracing at the opening ceremonies with a caption that included, “Eat your heart out, Pence.”

The post immediately started conversations about Vice President Mike Pence’s long history of anti-gay views. As governor of Indiana, Pence supported a religious freedom bill that allowed businesses to deny services to LGBT customers. That was eventually amended to prevent discrimination based on sexuality, but the damage was done and Indiana’s economy suffered.

It even reignited Pence’s rumored support of gay conversion therapy—a practice deemed unethical and dangerous by the American Psychological Association— as far back as 2000. Pence’s team denies those claims.

And it’s also important to remember that Pence was an outspoken opponent to same-sex marriage before it was legalized in 2015.

On the right, discussions about an unappreciative Rippon lit up the comment sections on newspaper sites and the “we get it, you’re gay” statements showed frustration with the subject of sexuality getting injected

into sports. It’s nothing really new. We’ve seen this before.

But a more important conversation is developing, thanks to Rippon. It’s whether or not a gay celebrity—or anyone with a voice in the LGBTQ community—should address discrimination with those who directly impose it.

According to a report in USA Today, Pence reached out to Rippon’s team and asked to meet the Olympian, supposedly to discuss the skaters concerns about LGBTQ issues and discrimination. Rippon was quick to share that he was uninterested in meeting the vice president. In turn, Pence’s team fought back and said an invitation was never issued in the first place.

Whomever you believe or however the conversation (or lack of a conversation) played out, it bears discussing the importance of open dialogue when anyone finds themselves in a disagreement.

For the sake of argument, let’s say that Pence did extend an invitation to Rippon.

Should Rippon seize the opportunity to share his feelings in person?

Yes. I think he should.

Timing is everything and discussing the issue may not be appropriate at the Winter Olympic Games. Rippon has plenty to focus on as he chases a gold medal. But declining an offer to discuss LGBTQ issues with the second highest-ranking politician in the country is a misstep, even if you have very little in common politically.

Imagine an out Olympian returning home after a (hopefully) successful appearance at the games to an adoring public and a meeting with the vice president to discuss equality.

It would show an ability to put hostilities and political bias aside to discuss a broader, more important issue. It would also encourage a conversation across the country because, let’s face it, we live in a reality television reality where drama and disagreement drive the national conversation.

Personally, meeting Vice President Pence in person would be difficult for me. It’s hard to imagine spending time with someone who I know has actively tried to oppress my community.

However, I would also see it as an opportunity to share my point of view with someone

to you after you repeatedly post about them on social media, you have to be willing to follow up. Otherwise, you’re just complaining about inaction while being inactive yourself.

Hypothetically, let’s imagine that Rippon and Pence meet after the games

and Rippon managed to get Pence to not only see his point of view, but to actually address them?

Isn’t that victory worth an uncomfortable conversation?

Rippon is only 28. He’s focused on the Olympics and the amazing fact that he is one of the first out Americans

in power who may need to hear a personal story or two about how actions—and laws—can directly impact someone in a negative way.

Great responsibility, as they say, comes with great power. And in the age of social media, you have to be willing to back up your tough talk with action. If someone is willing to talk about the things that are important

and discuss LGBTQ issues in the United States. And, in this hypothetical situation, we’ll say that no progress is made and Pence says he is not for equality. Rippon can then move forward knowing that he shared his point of view in a very public way and Pence’s hypothetical anti-gay views get played in the media.

But imagine if the conversation is successful

to compete in the Winter Games. His focus is where it should be.

But in four years or eight years, he’ll be looking at retirement and I’d hate for him to look back and think that he missed an opportunity to potentially help his community in a very big and very public way.

Great responsibility, as they say, comes with great power. And in the age of social media, you have to be willing to back up your tough talk with action.

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

viewpoint

Maia Monet

trAns oF thought ecenTly, a Trans

woman walked into a bookstore in New York City and sat down in the audience waiting for Rose McGowan to make an appearance.

Rose was in town promoting her memoir that, in part, chronicled her abuse at the hands of Harvey Weinstein and made her one of the leaders of the #MeToo movement. Taking the opportunity to stand up during the talk, the trans woman started in with charges of transphobia against Rose based on earlier statements made in a podcast. Voices were raised to the point of screaming. Rose, not a paragon of stability herself, handled it badly by screaming back at the trans woman to sit down and shut up. She then made more statements that both deflected the charges of transphobia and reinforced them. When the dust had cleared, video of the exchange was a viral sensation.

It became the story du jour on countless outlets and Rose attacked everyone from her own team, handlers, security and even the audience for not coming to her defense. Soon thereafter, fearing similar incidents, Rose announced she was canceling her book tour.

Predictably, opinions broke upon constituent membership. Outside the transgender community the incident was met with derision for the trans woman and accusations of bullying for attacking a woman who was herself a victim. There were transphobic statements floating around the Twittersphere and article comments in support of Rose. Inside trans world the tone was decidedly different. Ignoring the extreme methods used to elicit them, Rose’s previous and current comments were dissected for indications

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feminist allies and not just TERFs. The footage was practically a TERF recruitment video.

Now, did Rose McGowan say transphobic things?

Absolutely, and she should be held accountable for them. Let me be clear: I do not think we shouldn’t challenge our allies and call them out. We must have the

them to bring authenticity to their lives. They didn’t have to suffer to have what most other people are granted at birth. Rose wasn’t the only abused and hurting person in that recording.

If we as transgender people are to survive and advance, we need to cultivate allies by educating them. Rose herself stated

things we find the least bit offensive as transphobic.

We are demanding absolute perfection from those who would fight on our side and burning the rest to the ground. That’s how you turn allies into frenemies. What does that get us exactly? It’s easy to get offended and turn our backs. It is much harder to do the work to

courage of our convictions to say the hard things to our friends. What I am saying is that we must always keep in mind that they ARE our friends and on our side. Just like us, they were brought up in a society that taught them some very negative things about transgender people. It is inevitable that they would absorb some of these lessons. Unlike us, they didn’t have to get past

that she believes trans women are women and we are fighting on the same side. She’s right, and that assertion itself sets her apart from those feminists who deny our legitimate existence. It is the basis of greater understanding that can grow into more if we nurture it. Instead at times it seems like we are satisfied to run around and label those people who say

change people’s hearts and minds, but if we don’t, change will slow to a crawl as we wait for the passage of time to do the work for us. I don’t want to wait that long.

It’s easy to get offended and turn our backs. It is much harder to do the work to change people’s hearts and minds.

1972

2018

Melody Maia Monet is the Multimedia Assistant for Watermark and owns a YouTube channel on lesbian and transgender topics. You can view her videos at youtube.com/melodymaia.

g o! tin d ra rlan leb O Ce rs in ea 9y

R

Terf Battle

of cisgender privilege and anti-transgender sentiment.

Admittedly, it wasn’t hard.

Rose was certified to be a TERF and many in the transgender universe cheered. Another hater had been rooted out, exposed to the world and the ends justified the means.

For those of you who don’t know, a TERF is pretty much the worst thing you can call a woman who claims to be a feminist, but discriminates against trans women. The word itself stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist and is pretty self-explanatory: They simply don’t believe that trans women are women.

We are an extension of the patriarchy into female spaces and a particularly insidious form of male oppression. TERFs at their most benign are sign-carrying nuisances at the Women’s March. At their worst, they actively call for the extermination of trans women. To many trans women, Rose had just been exposed to be a card-carrying member of this extremist feminist sect, but from what I could surmise after straying from the transgender echo chamber, the rest of the world didn’t see it that way.

You know, I love trans women and there is a lot to love. We are a strong bunch.

We’ve had to to survive in a world that still largely barely tolerates us. I have dedicated an entire YouTube channel to promoting greater understanding of the lives we lead and the challenges we face. However, there are times that I want to slap all of us for being so tone deaf that we would shoot ourselves in the foot and praise it as a triumph as we limp around our victory lap. The Rose McGowan incident was a disaster of the highest order for us. Not only were the “optics” of a trans woman screaming at a crying abused cisgender woman terrible, it pitted trans women against

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

244 ATHLETES

are Competing on team usa in the 2018 winter olympiCs. of them

109 ARE FEMALE,

talking points Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger.’ It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee would like to change that to ‘Darker, Gayer, Different.’

—fox news execuTiVe ediTor john moody in op-ed slamming The diVersiTy in aThleTes on The u.s. winTer olympic Team.

president obama portrait by openly gay

afriCan-ameriCan artist unveiled at smithsonian

T

he naTional porTraiT gallery unVeiled porTraiTs of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, both painted by African-American artists who were personally chosen by the Obamas. The portraits were unveiled to the public Feb. 12 at the gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian group of museums. The gallery has a complete collection of presidential portraits. A second and different set of portraits of the former first couple will eventually hang in the White House. Barack Obama’s portrait was painted by Kehinde Wiley—an openly gay artist best known for his vibrant, large-scale paintings of African-Americans. For Michelle Obama’s portrait, the gallery commissioned Baltimore-based artist Amy Sherald. The portraits have been officially installed and are available for public viewing.

10 ARE AFRICAN-AMERICAN and

3BRITTANY ARE LGBTQ: BOWE

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dustin lanCe blaCK and tom daley are eXpeCting their first Child

d

usTin lance black and Tom daley posTed a phoTo on insTagram of themselves holding a sonogram picture announcing they are expecting their first child. “HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!” Daley simply captioned his post.

Black’s caption also noted the holiday with, “A very happy #ValentinesDay from ours to yours.” Black, 43, and Daley, 23, started dating in 2013, around the same time Daley publicly shared his interest in men, and became engaged in 2015. In May 2017, the couple wed in Devon, England. They both have stated in the past they wanted to have children. “We’re both lucky to have supportive families.

We want to share that with our own children,” Daley told the Belfast Telegraph last year.

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

burberry reCreates ClassiC plaid print with rainbow Colors

B

urberry has recreaTed iTs iconic plaid prinT inTo rainbow check pieces as part of its fall/winter 2018 collection in support of the LGBTQ community. The rainbow check pieces were displayed in Burberry’s London show Feb. 17. The items are available for purchase as of the end of the show. Burberry also announced it will be donating an undisclosed sum to three LGBTQ charities: the Albert Kennedy Trust which assists homeless LGBT people in the U.K.; the Trevor Project, the LGBT suicide prevention organization; and the International LGBTI Association which brings together more than 750 LGBT groups across the globe. This will be Christopher Bailey’s, who heads the British fashion house, final collection with the brand.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

CHARMED reboot will inClude a lesbian sister

a

CHARMED rebooT is in The works and the new series will include a lesbian sister. TVLine.com released character descriptions for the revamped trio of witches and one sister’s was noticeably different from the original. Mel Pruitt, the middle sister, is described as a lesbian who is dating female Detective Soo Jin. Mel’s power is time-freezing but a tragic accident has left her “angry, defiantly unkempt, even violent” causing problems between her and everyone else, including her girlfriend. Producers have yet to cast Mel’s girlfriend. Actress Holly Marie Combs, who played sister Piper in the original series, took to Twitter to slam the series reboot overall but did not mention the inclusion of LGBTQ characters.

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

Give Me My Roses

An Homage to Five Generations of Black Entertainers in Orlando

I

alma hill

n 1888, The firsT recorded arresTs

in the United States for female impersonation took place at the home of William Dorsey Swann, a black man. Less than a mile from the White House, Swann and twelve other men of color were arrested and charged with vagrancy after police raided a secret drag dance he was hosting. The following day the headline in the Evening Star read “Colored Men in Female Attire.�

The erasure of the contributions and sacrifices of people of color is rampant throughout our history, not only as a country, but as a community. Individuals of color have long been an integral part of the LGBTQ community and they are deserving of recognition and praise.

Behind the scenes the LGBTQ entertainment field is as diverse as ever. However, there are still calls for increased diversity in the public sphere. Women of color want more public visibility, especially as drag and entertainment are

1970s

geraldine Jones watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

transitioning to the biggest stage of all: mainstream media.

There are five generations of black drag queens living in Orlando, with a sixth on the horizon. They are representative of every facet of diversity that can be found in the LGBTQ community. In this feature, during Black History Month, we take the time to recognize and honor their contributions of those who have made Orlando’s entertainment industry better, simply by being a part of it.

Continued on pg. 23 | uu |

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1980s

W

| uu | Give Me My Roses from pg.21

1970s

W

illie Tillmon likes to watch the pageants at the Parliament House from the same spot every time.

He’s been standing up against the wall on the second level in the back of the room for at least 30 years. There he can get a full view of the stage and really take in the show. The performances are different than they were in the 1970s when he first graced the stage at the Footlight Theater as Geraldine Jones, but Tilmon enjoys watching the art form evolve and is proud of the knowledge that he helped pave the way.

At 74 years old, Willie Tillmon is the oldest living Drag Queen in Orlando. Originally, the dress was just a costume, a prop for a comedic monologue. His popular impression of Weezy from The Jeffersons was so successful that he started performing in drag regularly and at a time when there were only a handful of black female impersonators in the entertainment world.

It wasn’t until Tillmon introduced Geraldine Jones, based off of the Flip Wilson character of the same name, that he became a legend.

“I took about five minutes for makeup and got dressed,” he says laughing at his inexperience.

“Back then you were little more than a man in a dress.”

The significance of the performance is not lost on Tillmon. Being a black man in drag, in the ‘70s, was a very bold move, and one that Tillmon, as Jones, took in stride. Having been in the military band for 12 years, it had been ingrained in him years prior not to see color.

As the years go by, respect for Geraldine Jones and her legacy is evident. Everyone seems to have been touched by her in some way.

She remembers Angelica “Piggy” Sanchez when she was a newcomer from Jacksonville dancing backup for other performers. She predicted, correctly, that Vaughn Gretchen was going to be a star at her first amateur night. Years of knowledge have given her a knack for being able to pick out the best of the bunch. “‘You’re gonna win this thing’ I told her,” she says. “I didn’t

1980s

vaughn gretchen do anything special. After all this time, I just know what I’m looking at.”

Like all good matrons, Jones fusses over the women like a mother hen concerned about the wellbeing of her flock. She has an opinion and a bit of advice about everything. She warns newcomers about the rising cost of being a professional

entertainer — “Don’t get in it if you can’t afford to lose!” — and watches bodily enhancement with a wary eye and a wagging tongue. Never having had any work done herself, Jones is distrustful of permanent surgeries. She’s seen former colleagues have procedures reversed as their bodies aged.

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

To this day, Jones is sharp as a tack with a sense of humor that exceeds her petite frame. It’s clear that her designation as a matriarch is an important one to her, a title that she plans to live out as long as she can.

“Timeless!” Willie Tillmon says of his life as Geraldine Jones. “I’m timeless!”

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

illie H. King Jr. is a very busy person. At 61 years old he is the primary caregiver for his elderly parents and he works full time as a catering professional. He doesn’t get to perform as much as he did in the ‘80s, but when he does grace the stage at Parliament House, it’s as Vaughn Gretchen reminding the audience that disco never died.

King moved around a lot as a child, but by the age of 21 he had settled in his father’s hometown of Sanford. It was around this time that he discovered the Parliament House and began attending shows, watching and being inspired by performers like Heavy Duty and Miss P. “When I went to see them, I thought ‘I could do that,’” King says. As a teenager, he loved entertaining. As he matured, drag gave him a sense of fulfillment despite the risks involved.

In the 1980s it was still illegal for men to present themselves as female in any context. “I remember the white handkerchief test,” King says, discussing a policy that landed more than a few queens behind bars. If a law enforcement officer suspected that you were born a male and were dressed as a female, they could take a white handkerchief and wipe the face of a performer. If any makeup came off, handcuffs went on.

King speaks candidly about navigating the scene in the ‘80s.

Even though she was successful, out and proud, Vaughn performed drag in virtual secrecy to avoid persecution.

“If we had to travel we had to go to the club very early and get dressed inside. When we were done we had to get out early and make sure we were changed and everything before we hit the parking lot.”

Vaughn was surprised by how her race contributed to how she was perceived within the LGBTQ community. Often clubs that she booked assumed, because of her stage name, that she was a white woman. She learned how to unpack that initial shock and, at times, outright rejection.

There was also very little representation or diversity at that time. “When I first started you could have an entire cast of white entertainers, but you could only Continued on pg. 25 | uu |

23

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watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

wouldn’t survive. It was like a minefield in the ‘80s. You just wouldn’t survive. “ Now, Ms. Darcel is a little older but much wiser. She is currently the entertainment director for Parliament House.

She has been out for a long time now and drag has become a full-time occupation as opposed to an alter ego. She’s no longer living in the shadow of her own life.

“I’m always mindful of who I am and what I am,” she says.

Of all the women we spoke with, Ms. Darcel is the most vocal about advocating for diversity and the mainstream visibility of drag and entertainment. In fact, it was her calling out our coverage, or lack thereof, that inspired this feature.

She remarked on the recent elections in Alabama and hopes that the lessons learned there can extend to all communities across America.

“I hope some small measure of that echoes through us,” she says. “It was the black women who took that [election]. We need to start paying more attention to people of color.”

| uu | Give Me My Roses from pg.23

have one or two black ones. Never an entire cast.”

For King, even interracial dating was a point of contention in the ‘80s. “I was very surprised at the attitudes,” he says. “If I was dating a white gay male, they would still discriminate.”

King appreciates how the times have changed. He applauds the increase in racial diversity that he sees on stages. He gives kudos to the LGBTQ community at large for being more accepting of trans individuals.

Vaughn smokes a cigarette in the night air, under the lights that frame the pool in the courtyard of the Parliament House. Draped in an elaborate three piece sequined gown (a gift created by another veteran Wendy Grape) she gestures around at the motel.

“We lived here,” she says. Her tone was almost reverent. “We worked here. It was safe. It’s changed, but in a lot of ways it’s the same. That’s a good thing.”

1990s

F

or years, Ms. Darcel Stevens lived a double life. In the 1980s when she was in her 20s, she attended the University of Florida and lived the life of the ideal college student. Fresh out of the Army, Darnell, as he was called then, was a member of the ROTC and would commute two hours each way to report to his post in the National Guard. In fact, the first time he stepped out on to a stage in drag he was more interested in the cash prize than the performance. He needed the money for books.

Something about that first show lit a spark of curiosity in Darnell. It wasn’t the fact that he won that was surprising to him; it was the fact that he’d enjoyed the experience.

“It was my first time being away from my parents without some type of structure,” Ms. Darcel says, reminiscing. “For lack of a better word, it was my first time being free.”

Darnell walked a path that many today would consider almost gilded. He graduated high school, joined the army and got into a good school after he left active duty. His college graduation held the promise of a corporate job and he relocated to small-town Central Florida. On the outside his life

Early 2000s

T 1990s

ms. darcel Stevens seemed perfect, but under the surface Darnell was working hard to come to terms with his own identity.

“Drag was a metaphor for what was going on in my life,” Ms. Darcel says. Ms. Darcel Stevens is her present day moniker. “I was young and I had no direction. I met these

people who embraced me and introduced me to the art form.“ Being mentored by other black queens helped Darnell come to terms with his identity as a gay man, but also helped protect him in the early years of his drag career. It was the early ‘90s and the AIDS epidemic was in full swing. Also, being

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

a member of the ROTC, he was prohibited from being openly gay. Drag mothers, like Dede Williams and Diane Adams, took him under their wing and gave him a kind of secondary education.

“They taught me street smarts,” she says. “And without street smarts you

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

here’s a video on YouTube from the talent portion of the 1996 Miss Gay USofA at Large featuring Miss Angelica Sanchez. Back up dancers execute sharp choreography to Debbie Gibson’s Electric Youth, but their presence only elevates Angelica’s energy. She commands the stage. Around the two minute mark, she executes a flawless backbend and lip syncs the song Upside Down while the crowd goes wild. The performance is almost mesmerizing, it’s so good.

Talking to Angelica you would never know how tumultuous her life has been. She didn’t win the Miss Gay USofA at Large that year, although that did happen in 2001. She served as drag mother to Tyra Sanchez, a performer who went on to win Season 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She was also performing at Pulse nightclub when gunshots rang out that fateful night in June. Her life has had many ups and downs, but through it all, she has a bright, kind spirit.

She started doing drag as a teenager in Jacksonville, but it wasn’t until she graduated in

Continued on pg. 27 | uu |

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watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

| uu | Give Me My Roses from pg.25

1996 that she made performing a full time pursuit. Watching queens like Sierrah Foxx gave Angelica the motivation she needed to embrace drag as an art form, and her identity as a transgender woman.

“When I saw drag I realized I could be the woman I always wanted to be,” she says.

Sanchez’s career took off in the early 2000s, shortly after she was crowned Miss Gay USofA at Large. She became a familiar face in a landscape that was starting to embrace diversity. “I think we’ve added a lot of culture to Orlando,” Sanchez says. “Now there’s more diversity in the drag scene.”

While Sanchez is happy to see these changes, she argues that there’s still a lot of progress to be made. Angelica, or “Piggy” as she’s affectionately referred to, is an advocate for transgender rights and visibility. “I feel like the gay community should stand up for us more,” she says. Her argument that transgender people are often the first to stand for change and the last to be granted civil rights is one that has been debated—and rightfully so—for decades.

As she embarks on her journey as a transgender woman, she has the support and love of her peers. “We’re our own community,” she says.

“We have each other’s backs, no matter what color.“

2000s

2010 to now

J

azelle Barbie Royale is a beautiful and confident woman. It’s not hard to see how she earned the coveted title of Miss Continental in 2016. She’s a professional, but she is very careful not to label herself.

“I never wanted to be a drag queen,” she says. “I always wanted to be an entertainer.”

Jazelle is a transgender woman and a professional entertainer.

It’s a distinction that is rarely clarified in popular culture. The way that she carries herself adds a layer of visibility and clarification to gender identity versus entertainment, an important distinction to make as the LGBTQ community translates to the national stage.

“For me, they go hand in hand,” Jazelle says.

angelica Sanchez Heavily influenced by her passion for music, Jazelle got her start as a performer in high school.

She was always involved in the performing arts and was a member of the local All City Choir. After graduation she started performing at Club 3D in Jacksonville, but moved to Orlando in 2011 when she was hired to a permanent position at the Parliament House.

In the six years that Jazell has been a resident of Orlando, she has built a reputation that is reflective of the temperature of our culture and is indicative of how hardworking and talented she is.

When she competed in the Miss Continental in Chicago in 2016, she received a perfect score for the talent portion of the competition while singing her own live vocals.

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

The rise of the Miss Continental Pageant is in itself symbolic, an almost parallel reflection of Jazelle’s journey. It was a pageant formed specifically as a response to rules in other LGBTQ pageants which accepted drag queens as participants, but barred transgender women from entering. The distinction was forced upon transgender women,

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

who historically, turned to drag for work. Miss Continental was created in 1980 to be inclusive of all gender classifications, impersonator or otherwise.

With the support of her family, particularly her mother, she’s quickly become successful.

“Entertaining is 75 percent of my life. It means everything to me. I get joy out of getting to express myself.”

Her blossoming reputation has not been all smooth sailing.

She has experienced all shades of discrimination, from colorism to blatant racial exclusion.

“When I started, I was with girls who were mostly white and Latina” she says. “Those girls got more opportunities.

They were taken more seriously early on but at this point, I’ve surpassed them.”

She gets more recognition since her Miss Continental win.

More recognition means more work and more opportunities to do what she does best: shine.

Yani is the future. As the youngest of the bunch, she is also the most recent Orlando transplant, only having lived here for three years.

Central Florida is a world apart from the oppressive attitudes that still exist in South Carolina, where Yani was raised.

A soft spoken woman of only 26 years old, she’d done some performing in South Carolina as a drag entertainer. She moved to Orlando in 2014 to accept a job at the Parliament House. It was a leap of faith that set in motion changes that are now dictating the course of her life.

Yani is now openly a transgender woman. She began transitioning about 18 months ago. She finds inspiration all around her, from other performers (specifically Jazelle and Ms.Darcel who inspire her) to the environment itself.

“I was inspired by the extravagance of Parliament House,” she says of the Orlando institution. “I had to really step it up when I got here.”

It was difficult for her growing up transgender in the South, but her path seemed destined. “I always wanted to do this,” she says.

Now, having been presented the opportunity, Yani is letting her abilities speak for her. She’s won several awards at the Parliament House, most recently being recognized at the weekly hip hop

Continued on pg. 29 | uu |

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watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

2010s

jazelle barbie Royale | uu | Give Me My Roses from pg.27

night. It’s surprising that a woman as introverted as Yani could be such a bombastic performer, but it’s proof that the stage is her element.

“Outside of the stage, I’m a very shy person,” she says. “As soon

tHe fUtUre

yani

as I get on stage, all that goes out the window.”

Yani seems to embody a little piece of all the women who came before her. She is brave like Geraldine, but her words are calculated and thoughtful, a trait she shares with Ms. Darcel. When it comes to public scrutiny she’s a bit introverted, like Vaughn, and she is a transgender woman, like Jazell.

But above all, what is so intriguing about Yani is that she is very much still forming her own identity. She is the first sign of spring, a flower just about to bloom. She has a piece of all these women reflected in her persona, but her identity is not cloaked by their legacies. Instead, it is enhanced.

Yani is surrounded by a community that is driven by love

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

and camaraderie. As she develops, they will undoubtedly be there to guide her hand, teach her all the tricks of the trade and instill in her the unique lessons that come with being black, being a drag queen and being a transgender woman in the world.

Yani is in good hands, hands that for years have helped women in her shoes to reach their fullest potential.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

People like Geraldine and Vaughn opened the doors; Darcell and Angelica paved the way; Jazell is what years of sacrifice can become when allowed to flourish. And Yani?

Well, Yani is black, and female, and proud.

Yani is the future.

29

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watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

arts and entertainment

GREY MATTERS Legendary performer Joel grey headlines the Garden Theatre’s 10-year anniversary celebration

f

Jeremy Williams

ew enTerTainers are as

synonymous with a character they have portrayed as legendary actor Joel Grey is with the Emcee from Cabaret. Grey does not so much act the part as embody the character and become the master of ceremonies at the fictional Kit Kat Club in 1930s Berlin.

Grey performed in the original Broadway run of Cabaret as well as the 1972 film version, winning a Tony Award and an Academy Award for the same role. He is one of only nine performers to do so.

Grey heads to Central Florida to headline the 10-year anniversary celebration of the Garden Theatre in Winter Park. Grey spoke with Watermark by phone about life in the theater, coming out as a gay man in his later years and what we can expect from THE Master of Ceremonies at the Garden Theatre. you grew up in Cleveland and were raised around

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

entertainers beCause of your father’s Job. what was that upbringing liKe?

My father was a musician and comedian; my mother was a homemaker. It was kind of exciting growing up because he was my dad and he was making music and making people laugh. He made people happy and was getting a lot of respect in the community for having that expertise and talent. I saw that as something really positive.

Continued on pg. 33 | uu |

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

| uu | Joel Grey

from pg.31

seeing your father perform and entertain liKe that, is that what drew you to theater?

It was a time in the United States where I looked around and it seemed appropriate.

You know, timing is everything.

No, actually I went to see a play when I was a kid, and I was sitting there with my mother at the Cleveland Playhouse. I looked up on the stage and I just had a moment, and I said I want to do that. I was 8 years old and told my mother I wanted to perform, so she enrolled me in a children’s theater and I took to it like the proverbial duck to water.

do you remember that first role you had and being on stage?

Yes I do. I remember it very well.

It was the role of a pilgrim in Massachusetts and the play was called Hurricane Island. There was a big storm coming and for my part I had to climb up the ladder to let the townspeople know that the storm was coming. I remember that the ladder was so shaky and it was so scary but I knew I had a job to do.

That’s when I knew I believed in the art of telling the story. I was 9 at the time and that belief in the art has never stopped. you have been doing this for more the seven deCades now, and you still get that same sense of eXCitement when you go on stage?

Yes [laughing] absolutely. Still to this day getting on a stage is so powerful and exciting. That hope of being able to not only tell the story but letting the audience be able to see themselves in the play. It’s amazing. you and bernadette peters have been Close friends for years, and i had the privilege of speaKing with her last year. you Came up in Conversation when i asKed her about being able to interpret sondheim liKe no one else. she mentioned your ability to do the same with the songs of John Kander and fred ebb. so i’ll asK you the same Question i asKed her: what is it about their musiC and words that you are able to understand and interpret them so beautifully?

They just fit so well with me, and they have a bit of cheekiness like I do [laughs], and a melodic power that is so appealing. You know they were friends of mine before I ever worked with them. And I so adore Bernadette. She played my sister in George M. It was her first job and it was 50 years ago. April 11, my

— joel grey on why he waiTed unTil he was 82 years old To come ouT as gay

The ulTimaTe emcee: Joel Grey will be at the 10th anniversary celebration gala for Winter Park’s Garden Theatre March 3. PHOTO BY HENRY LEUTWYLER birthday actually, will mark the 50th anniversary of George M. when you first worKed with bernadette Could you tell that she was going to be a huge broadway star?

Within a second of meeting her I could tell, and we have been close friends now all these years. She is like my sister. she is absolutely fabulous, i adore her.

Yeah, everyone does [laughs], you have a lot of company there. She is so wonderful. all the interviews you have done over your many years of performing, every one of them ComesbaCK to your role of the emCee in Cabaret.

does it get frustrating at all, as an aCtor, being tied so Closely to one CharaCter?

Not one bit, and you know why? It is too good a part. That role just has such a powerful connection for me and I am so grateful and so honored to be able to be associated with such an iconic character. how did the part of the emCee Come to you?

Hal Prince. He was the original director and producer of the Broadway show. He had the idea after being in Germany when he was in the service, he was in a bar and saw a German emcee and he remembered this guy. He talked to me about it, and Kander and Ebb about it. The next thing we knew, there he was.

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

the CharaCter is so iConiC in part beCause of your performanCe, and you were reCogniZed for that with a tony award for best performanCe by a featured aCtor in a musiCal. you then went on to perform the emCee in the film version of CABARET and won the aCademy award for best supporting aCtor, but you almost didn’t get the part for the film version. the film’s direCtor, bob fosse, didn’t want to Cast you. do you Know what his reservation was?

We never knew. There were people who thought he didn’t want to cast me because he wanted to play the part himself. Bob Fosse was a talented performer and he liked the part.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

what was the set liKe while filming?

How about “difficult”? [laughs] Yeah, that set, it was just a lot of big personalities.

while you will forever be Known for your performanCe in Cabaret, you have played some other legendary CharaCters and turned in brilliant performanCes on broadway— you were george m. Cohen in GEORGE M., amos in CHICAGO and the wiZard of oZ in the original run of WICKED Just to name a few. do you have any one role that stands out from all of them that you enJoyed playing more?

Continued on pg. 35 | uu |

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

| uu | Joel Grey from pg.33

No. Each one is unique and brilliant in their own way, and I loved playing all of them.

you were out to Close friends and family for many years but you deCided to Come out publiCly at the age of 82 in a PEOPLE magaZine interview, and then speaK very Candidly about your struggles with your seXuality in your 2016 memoir MASTER OF CEREMONIES. what made you deCide to go publiC then as opposed to earlier in your Career?

It was a time in the United States where I looked around and it seemed appropriate. You know, timing is everything. was it diffiCult writing your booK, looKing baCK on suCh a long and suCCessful Career and reCounting those stories of having to live in the Closet during those times of Celebration?

It was naturally poignant, but it was something I always knew that I was going to do and was ready to put it out in the world. Like I said, timing is everything and the timing was right to put my story out there and share my experiences. as someone who has been a part of broadway for as long as you have, what shows have you seen reCently that everyone needs to pay attention to?

The last thing I saw that wowed me was The Band’s Visit. It’s a musical based on a film and it is absolutely superb. It’s just one of the best things I have seen in years. So make sure you read up on it. along with being a legend of theater, you also have a passion for photography. in faCt you have released several booKs of your worK throughout the last Couple of years. when did you develop this love for photography?

I think I have always been interested in the visual arts.

a cabareT life: Joel Grey recounts seven decades on the

stage and in the entertainment business in his 2016 memoir, Master of Ceremonies. PHOTO COURTESY FLATIRON BOOKS-US MACMILLAN

event will be myself and a conversation with a local television personality, a few songs. It will be very informal, and then a Q&A with the audience. I think it will be fun.

I have been taking pictures personally all my life. Pictures of my children and places I have gone to when filming movies, and I’m always interested in capturing those visuals that stand out to me.

One day someone said to me, looking at a picture I took, “that’s a great photograph.

Do you have anymore?” And I said “Oh yes I do [laughing].”

I have been taking pictures for pleasure for so long that I had thousands of negatives.

The next thing I knew we had made it into a book. Now here we are and I’m working on my fifth book.

after 70-plus years in the business what’s the best adviCe you have for those who, liKe you, saw a play and fell in love with theater and want to get into the game?

Lately, it’s sexy pictures of flowers.

you Keep Quite a busy sChedule for a person of any age, but you will be turning 86 this april. what’s your seCret to being able to Keep going at the rate you do?

what’s your favorite subJeCt to taKe piCtures of?

tell me about your event here at the garden theatre marCh 3.

Someone there reached out. Someone at the theater must like us [laughing]. It will be my first time to the Garden Theatre, and I am excited because I am told it is a wonderful theater. The

Be prepared for a tough fight.

It’s very demanding and it’s getting harder to break in all the time. However, if you’ve got the stuff it’s worth it.

If you have that spark you have a chance.

No secrets. I love what I do and I’m interested in life. I always wake up thinking what am I going to learn today?

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

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Reach local LGBT communities across the nation.

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comedy

Cho-sen One

Comedian Margaret Cho on her new tour, bi-erasure and our LGBTQ family

(above)

SICKENING:

Margaret Cho’s new tour “Fresh off the Bloat” is described as “her sickest stand-up comedy show to date.”

PHOTO BY ALBERT SANCHEZ

“E

Ryan Williams-Jent

verything about my life is

intimately connected in gay history,” superstar comedian Margaret Cho says.

“It’s my community; it’s where I live, where I grew up, who I am, all my friends, all my family.”

That’s been evident in Cho’s decades-long career, beginning with her stand-up in San Francisco near the gay bookstore her parents owned. It continues today with her accolades as a performer, in which her comedic takes on LGBTQ rights, sexuality, bullying and politics have led to five Grammy nominations, an Emmy nomination and being

named one of Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Stand-Up Comics in 2017.

Most recently, it’s crafted her now-extended tour “Fresh off the Bloat,” which stops in Tampa on March 9 and 10 for four performances. It’s officially described as “her sickest stand-up comedy show to date,” one where “Margaret doesn’t take anything for granted as she continues to tackle

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

difficult subjects with sensitivity and her razor sharp insight with her takes on addiction, abuse, activism and Asianness.”

“My new show is all about being fresh off drugs and drinking and suicide and coming back to life,” Cho says. She tells Watermark that “I’ve had incredible success in my career,” noting that while she has friends who are so famous that they can’t leave the house, she’s living the ideal situation in show business.

“I can actually live anonymously in any place, it’s no big deal. I can do whatever I want. But still, if I need to, I can cash in on my ‘celebrity.’”

Cho was raised in a San Francisco community she recalls as full of “old hippies, ex-druggies, burnouts, drag queens and Chinese people.” Some of

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her earliest memories involve men and women who worked for Harvey Milk and “being at those very early gay pride celebrations in the ‘70s.”

“My father basically would give me over to them for the weekend and I would go to these gay pride celebrations and hang out in the gay community as a very young kid,” she recalls. “To see all the way into 2015 when the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage and everything upward until then, this incredible history, I’ve been very connected to it and grown up with it. It’s tremendous to me.”

As for her own sexuality, Cho identifies both as bisexual and as queer. “Queer is great because it’s really ‘90s, and I love that,” she

Continued on pg. 39 | uu |

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watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

SILENT SEXUALITY: Cho identifies as bisexual and queer, adding that the “B” in “LGBTQ” is often “the silent part.” PHOTO BY ALBERT SANCHEZ

| uu | Margaret Cho from pg.37

laughs. “It’s so old school in its way, and that’s sort of my flavor of political action, so that works for me. Bisexual is very ‘70s, and there’s something really chic about it. So, both actually apply.”

She says bisexuals are often discounted by the LGBTQ community and the straight community, however. “The ‘B’ is the silent part of [the LGBTQ], you know? And in the straight world, bisexuality is also very like, ‘well no, you’re gay.’”

“It’s something that you’re constantly sort of introducing and explaining,” Cho says. “There’s a lot of explaining when you’re bisexual. It sort of begins with who

[People] don’t look at how seriously our community’s been damaged by substance and alcohol abuse. Maybe —Margaret Cho someday people will kind of wake up to that. you’re with, who your partner is, whatever they are, what gender they are.” She also notes that for her, having been with “a lot of people who identify not as male or female,” bisexuality is “almost a limiting thing, because it makes it very finite… very binary, but it’s actually not.”

Cho believes “it’s a part of politics to want to label things,” even though bisexuality is often threatening to others. “Your identity is very politicized if you’re in the gay community. No matter where you are politically, it’s

going to be politicized because of who we are.” She sees labels and identities as “our strength,” but notes that they can often be hard to explain when “there isn’t a clear sexual icon.”

“We have people that we think of that are bisexual that talk about it, like Angelina Jolie.

But also, you don’t see her clearly with women,” Cho says. “Not like she’s been paired in the same way with like, Brad Pitt. Her straight relationships are more highlighted, like Anna Paquin.

Cynthia Nixon would be [someone]

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

that I identify with; I think that her kind of situation seems likely to be something that I would be in.”

Cho also muses that “certainly no men” in the public eye have highlighted their bisexuality.

“I hear about it, and I know Alan Cumming very well and he’s sort of always said that he’s bi… but also, I don’t see him with a woman at all,” she laughs. “Even I’m acutely responsible for bi bias, and if I’m doing that and I’m bi, imagine everybody else.”

She does believe that her intimacy with the LGBTQ

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community led to her time away from the public eye in rehab, however, something she highlights in the new tour. “I had a lot of friends, very wealthy gay men, who were carrying me around all over the world feeding me every drug because they all just had a nose job,” she says, laughing.

“They couldn’t do cocaine anymore because their face collapsed so I had to do cocaine for them,” she continues.

“I was being pampered like I was Elizabeth Taylor or something. I really almost died in that capacity. It’s not easy to survive it.”

“It’s really tragic what drugs and alcohol has done to the LGBTQ community,” she believes.

“It’s an absolute nightmare. I think people don’t really think about it, or they don’t look at how seriously our community’s been damaged by substance and alcohol abuse.

Maybe someday people will kind of wake up to that. I don’t know if that’ll happen in my lifetime but I would love to see that.”

Something she has lived to see is the #MeToo movement, which caused her tour to make a “big, big shift. I love that they call it the reckoning,” she says.

“It’s like a horror movie, like the rapture! Like all of the abusers and rapists are being like, lifted up into this big whirlwind of sexual deviance and it’s really like this funny thing.”

It’s funny to her, at least, because “I’ve been on the other side. I’m a rape survivor. I’ve been talking about this in my comedy for years. People really recoiled from the subject while I was doing it. No one wanted to talk about it, and now it’s all we talk about.”

Cho says it put her in a unique position, with “a lot of experience talking about it.” She asserts that “every day brings something new, [and it’s] something that really affects women and gay men in particular. I think it’s really incredible.”

“Stand-up comedy is the form I’ve been very devoted to my entire life,” Cho says. “It is what I do the best, and I’ve gotten to this point where I’m better now than I’ve ever been. Comedy is the one thing we can look to with hope... and that’s really what we need right now.”

You can see Margaret Cho’s “Fresh off the Bloat” at the Tampa Improv Comedy Theater & Restaurant on March 9 & 10. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit improvtampa.com or call 813-864-4000.

39

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watermark Your LGBTQ life.

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booKs

The Bookworm Sez

Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution, Revised Edition by Susan Stryker C.2008, 2017, SEAL PRESS • $17.99 / $23.49 CANADA • 303 PAGES

I

Terri schlichenmeyer

T had To sTarT somewhere.

Someone had to make the first step, to pave the way, to stick a fork into the ground and say, “Here, now.” Someone had to be the first so that others could follow, and in the newly updated book Transgender History by Susan Stryker, you’ll see where we go next.

Opening a history book with a chapter on terms and words might seem odd but, says Susan Stryker, “remarkable changes” over the last decade demand it. Thus begins this book, with new language for what is an old lifestyle.

Indeed, America’s first recorded “intersex” individual was Thomas(ine) Hall, who lived in the 1620s, “sometimes as a man and sometimes as a woman.” Seventy years later, however, the colony of Massachusetts made “cross-dressing” illegal and it spread; by the 1850s, many U.S. cities had ordinances

against dressing in clothing normally worn by the opposite sex.

And yet, it was hard to stop people who wanted to dress as or fully transition to another gender.

Throughout the 1800s, records show that women dressed as men for battle, cross-dressers braved the frontier, men ran away from their families to be true to their feminine selves and Native American cultures embraced transgender people.

Says Stryker, after anesthesia was invented and surgeries were safer, “individuals began approaching doctors to request surgical alteration of… parts of their bodies.”

For a time, then, the movement was relatively quiet – by necessity, as the Nazis proved when they torched Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute

for Sexual Science in Berlin – until American Christine Jorgensen “burst onto the scene” in late 1952 when she traveled to Copenhagen for trans surgery. Her ensuing fame didn’t signal full acceptance for trans people, but it was a start: riots in 1959 led to activism in the 1960s, and post-Stonewall groups consolidated to lend support and work through “difficult decades” of the ‘70s, ‘80s and the AIDS crisis.

Today, says Stryker, though we live

in interesting times of Trump and turmoil, the news is heartening.

Millennials and “post-Baby Boomers” have expressed more acceptance of “trans-gender as part of the ‘anti-heteronormative’ mix.”

Though Transgender History is a revised edition of a book first published a decade ago, it has a fresh feel thanks to that which author Susan Stryker has added. The first chapter, somewhat of a dictionary, schools readers on new ways of talking about LGBTQ issues and individuals, while the last chapter of trans history brings readers up to the present, including topics of politics, potties and celebrity.

What makes it unusual is that, though it’s not always chronological, it’s breezy and casually readable.

There’s no stuffiness here, and no air of the scholarly; Stryker makes this history accessible for people who want a story and not a textbook.

And so, this book is a pleasant surprise. It’s easy to read, not overly wordy and there are a just-right number of illustrations here for a reader’s enjoyment. For anyone who wants a basic, yet lively, overview of trans life in America, Transgender History is a great start.

Previews Begin March 3

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Arts+entertAinment Central florida Mamma Mia!, Feb. 23-March 11, Theatre Winter Haven, Winter Haven. 863-294-7469; TheatreWinterHaven.com Disney’s The Lion King, Feb 14- March 11, Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts, Orlando. 844-513-2014; DrPhillipsCenter.org

community calendar

event planner

le plus grand

speCtaCle

The Purple Madness - Tribute to Prince, Feb. 24, House of Blues, Orlando. 407-934-2583; HouseofBlues.com

Central florida

The Barber Fund presents: 1st Annual Satchel Soiree sunday, feb. 25, 6:00-11:00 p.m.

The Venue, orlando The Barber Fund brings John Barber’s favorite game of “What’s in the Bag” to The Venue for the inaugural Satchel Soiree. Come out and bid on fabulous purses, murses and pocket books filled with amazing prizes.

Plus you get to keep the bag it all comes in. Cocktails start at 6:00 p.m. with live auctions kicking off at 7:00 p.m. $10 suggested donation at the door. All proceeds raised go to benefit The Barber Fund. For more information visit TheVenueOrlando.com.

ExpectoBar Crawl, Feb. 24, Wall Street Cantina, Orlando.

248-762-7960; EventBrite.com

Joe Posa as Joan Rivers saTurday & sunday, march 2-3, 8:00-9:30 p.m. parliamenT house, orlando

Macklemore, Feb. 24, Universal Orlando Resort, Orlando. 407-363-8000; UniversalOrlando.com Fork & Wine, Feb. 24, Cork & Olive, Lake Mary. 407-323-0555; CorkAndOliveOnline.com The Bigot, Feb. 24-25, Shakespeare Theatre, Orlando.

917-945-7070; TheBigot.

TicketLeap.com TheXpos Wedding Show, Feb. 25, The Center at Deltona, Deltona. 407-497-9710; TheXpos.com The Center’s Big Gay Bingo with Pepe, Feb. 26, LGBT+ Center, Orlando. 407-228-8272; TheCenterOrlando.org Howie Mandel, Feb. 26, King Center for the Performing Arts, Melbourne. 321-242-2219; KingCenter.com HRC’s Collegiate Series at UCF, Feb. 28, University of Central Florida, Orlando.

407-823-2000; Orlando.

HRC.org RuPaul’s Drag Race AllStars 3 Viewing Party, March 1, Stonewall Bar, Orlando. 407-373-0888; StonewallOrlando.com Flogging Molly, March 2, House of Blues, Orlando. 407-934-2583; HouseofBlues.com

Cirque Du Soleil brings their newest touring show VOLTA to the big top at Tampa Greyhound Track running now through March 18. PHOTO BY BENOIT Z/LEROUX AND COSTUMES BY ZALDY

Actor and female celebrity impersonator, Joe Posa, joins forces with Joan Rivers’ former comedy writer, Tony Tripoli, for a 90-minute Joan Rivers Tribute show at the Footlight Theatre in Parliament House. Tripoli shares some hilarious memories of working with Ms. Rivers and Posa brilliantly recreates the comic legend’s look, mannerisms and comic energy. For more information and tickets visit ParliamentHouse.com.

tampa bay Taste of Windermere, March 3, The Grove, Orlando. 407-422-6150; TheGroveOrlando.com High Tea with Kitties, March 7, Orlando Cat Cafe, Clermont. 352-989-4820; OrlandoCatCafe.com

tampa bay VOLTA by Cirque du Soleil, Feb. 22- March 18, Tampa Greyhound Track, Tampa. 813-932-4313; LuckyCards.com Honey Pot Anniversary Party, Feb. 23, Honey Pot, Tampa.

813-247-4663; Facebook.com/ Honey-Pot Yogi Fest 2018, Feb. 24, The Lotus Pond Yoga Studio, Tampa. 813-961-3160; YogaLotusPond.com

The Lights Fest Tampa Area, Feb. 24, Little Everglades Events, Dade City. 352-521-3661; TheLightsFest.com

The Color Purple, March 6-11, TheStraz Center, Tampa.

813-229-7827; StrazCenter.org

Ms Broken Slut 2018 Pageant, Feb. 25, Quench Lounge, Largo. 727-321-3854; MetroTampaBay.org Balance Tampa Bay February Social, Feb. 28, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, St. Petersburg.

BalanceTampaBay.org Skyway 10k, March 4, Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg.

813-501-2932; MudRunFinder.com Oscar Party, March 4, Tampa Theatre, Tampa. 813-274-8981; TampaTheatre.org Showgirl, Showgirl at Large & Showman Pageants, March 5, Flamingo Resort, St. Petersburg. 727-321-5000; FlamingoFla.com

Blame it On Bianca, March 7, Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa. 813-229-7827; StrazCenter.org

2018 Equality Florida Tampa Gala saTurday, feb. 24, 7:30-11:00 p.m.

Tpepin’s hospiTaliTy cenTre, Tampa You’re invited to an evening of entertainment, education and celebration at Equality Florida’s 2018 Tampa Gala. The evening will feature live and silent auctions, live music, open bar and hors d’oeuvres. EQFL CEO Nadine Smith will provide a few words on the state of LGBTQ equality and will also recognize community champions. Tickets are $125 and are available at EQFL.org/TampaGala.

sarasota The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Feb. 15-March 4, Manatee Performing Arts Center, Bradenton. 941-748-5875; ManateePerforming ArtsCenter.com

Taste of Pride

Love Yourself Youth Party, Feb. 23, ALSO Youth, Sarasota.

941-951-2576; AlsoYouth.org DreamGirls, Feb. 23-March 18, Venice Theatre, Venice. 941-488-1115; VeniceStage.com

saTurday, march 3, 7:00-10:00 p.m.

The coliseum, sT. peTersburg Join St. Pete Pride for an evening of food, beer and art at Taste of Pride! Friends and supporters will gather at the Coliseum to celebrate Pride through a unique culinary experience that offers something for everyone.

Guests can also enjoy live entertainment and show off their skills on the dance floor. Advance tickets are available for $40 but are expected to sell out fast. For tickets and more information visit StPetePride.com.

To submit your upcoming event, concert, performance, or fundraiser visit watermarkonline.com.

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Wrap. Test. Repeat.

IfYouSex.org

a member of

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overheard

tampa bay out+about

down undher

T

he social gaThering group Tampa bay lesbians, in conjunction with Project No Labels, has announced a new happy hour at Subcentral in the Iberian Rooster geared toward empowering women.

“UndHERground is every Wednesday with a three-month series of talent contests,” the group’s press release reads. “Join us in a below ground speakeasy style setting while spoken word artists speak their truths, burlesque performers twirl their pasties, singers and drag kings compete for prizes while local celebrity judges choose the winners and take part in spotlight performances - all in the name of celebrating and empowering women!”

The launch party will feature hostess Mayven Missbehavin’, music from area DJ Ace Vedo and “an eclectic mix of other performers,” the group advises. They further note that winners of singing, drag and spoken word contests will receive “cash, prizes, mentorships with some of Tampa Bay’s most creative talent, media coverage and more.”

“Aside from the Honey Pot, there’s not weekly events tailored to the needs of 21 and up lesbians in Tampa Bay,” Project No Labels founder Claire Elisan says. “A happy hour geared toward networking, socializing in a safe environment versus the online realm and highlighting local artists stimulates the evening and provides guests with a meaningful and authentic experience.”

The first UndHERground gathering will be held on Feb. 28 from 7 p.m. until midnight. The event’s cover charge is $5 prior to 8 p.m. and drinks will be 50 percent off.

For more information, contact Tampa Bay Lesbians at 813-438-3537, visit tampabaylesbians.com or email tampabaylesbians2018@gmail.com.

gays of our lives

T

ampa pride has announced ThaT acTor chrisTopher sean will be the celebrity grand marshal for this year’s Diversity Parade.

The actor is best known for his recurring role of Gabriel Waincroft on CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 and currently portrays the popular gay character Paul Narita on NBC’s soap opera Days of our Lives. Sean, who is of Japanese-American descent, became the third prominently gay Asian character to currently appear on television.

The character’s coming out episode was heralded as groundbreaking, with BuzzFeed noting that the “closeted professional baseball player came out to his family in a scene spoken entirely in Japanese with English subtitles.”

The fourth annual Tampa Pride, which last year drew 35,000 attendees, will be held on March 24. For more information about this year’s parade and array of events, visit TampaPride.org or email Tampa Pride President Carrie West at c.west@TampaPride.org.

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engaged: Activists Ann (L) and Angie protest Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Tampa appearance near Lykes Gaslight Square Park on Feb. 7. PHOTO BY RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT

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communiTy care: Evan Clark greets the community at Metro Wellness’ Flamingo location, now open Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, on Feb. 18.

PHOTO BY RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT

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wakanda foreVer: Romone Bowens (L) and Edith Lewis-Allen channel their best Wakandan pride ahead of Black Panther at St. Petersburg’s AMC Sundial on Feb. 15. PHOTO

BY RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT

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she prepared: Megan Tarbox wins the “Drunken Disney” cosplay contest at Iberian Rooster for channeling The Lion King’s Scar on Feb. 8.

PHOTO BY RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT

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swipe righT: Rosita Carazo, Jeanine Halum, Claire Elisan and Angela Coley (L-R) search for singles at Watermark’s Swipe Right party at Enigma on Feb. 8.

PHOTO BY RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT

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saTurday social: Jon, Rui, George and Ken (L-R) share a moment at Bradley’s on th 7 on Feb. 17. PHOTO BY

6

RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT

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circus loVe: Ashley Lester (L) and Claudiane Labelle attend Cirque du Soleil’s VOLTA at the Tampa Greyhound Track on Feb. 14.

PHOTO BY RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT

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be a Ten: Wade Williams-Jent, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10’s Eureka O’Hara and Chris Kiss (L-R) sissy that smile at Southern Nights Tampa on Feb. 17.

PHOTO BY RYAN WILLIAMS-JENT

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overheard

orlando out+about

selena taKes tussauds

T

he legendary laTin recording arTisT selena was tragically gunned down in 1995, but her influence in music and fashion has survived more than 20 years later. Madame Tussauds Orlando is remembering the “Queen of Tejano” with a wax figure of the music icon on display through Spring Break. They gave a few lucky fans the chance to see the Selena figure before she was presented to the public with a singing contest.

Fans were asked to submit music videos to social media using the hashtag #LoveSelenaOrlando. One of those videos was submitted by Hamburger Mary’s Broadway Brunch Bunch singer Heather Abood. Heather, with friend Caitlin Larkin on guitar, sang “Amor Prohibido” and was named one of the contest winners. Heather, along with Brunch Bunch star Nicky Monet dressed identical to the Selena figure in tow, and Caitlin attended the event.

Speaking to News 13, Heather talked about what seeing the wax figure meant to her. “It was emotional,” she said. “A lot of us were young when she passed away so we weren’t able to see her in concert or meet her so this is the closest to a meet and greet that we’ll ever get.”

Selena’s wax figure, along with a tribute video featuring Heather and Caitlin, are currently on display at Madame Tussauds Orlando through April 8.

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onepulse foundation postpones town hall

T

he onepulse foundaTion posTponed iTs Town hall forum that was scheduled for Feb. 21 out of respect for a CNN town hall meeting that took place in Parkland at the same time.

“In the wake of last week’s tragedy, now is the time to focus on the Parkland community and the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School,” said Barbara Poma, executive director and CEO of onePULSE, in a press release.

After the tragic event that occurred Feb. 14 at Stoneman Douglas High School, the South Florida community is demanding responses from lawmakers on what they’re doing to prevent gun violence and protect citizens. CNN is facilitating the discussion between the community and lawmakers by holding a nationally televised town hall meeting with students and parents affected by the tragedy and concerned community members.

Out of respect for an issue that hits too close to home, the onePULSE Foundation decided to reschedule its Town Hall Forum, which was also set to focus on gun violence, for a yet undetermined time in the future.

“Our kinship and love go out to the families and survivors grappling with devastation too deep to comprehend,” said Poma. “We share their grief and we fully support their message: Gun violence must end.”

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making mama proud: Impulse Orlando’s Leonides Soler (R) meets LGBTQ activist, and mom to superstar Ellen, Betty DeGeneres at the HRC Time to THRIVE conference at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek Hotel Feb. 17.

PHOTO BY JEREMY WILLIAMS

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oh boy, The lion king: Wayne Dictor and Moira (Front) are joined

by Watermark’s own Jeremy Williams and Kathleen Harper for a performance of Disney’s The Lion King at the Dr. Phillip’s Center Feb. 15. PHOTO COURTESY

JEREMY WILLIAMS

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sunday funday: (L-R) Kalen Michele, Jenna Coleman, Paul Iankov, Rolin Alexis, Nwankaku Onwunli and Michele Johnson enjoy a sunny Sunday at Avenue Gastro in Orlando Feb. 18. PHOTO BY JEREMY WILLIAMS

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purse firsT: Kristy Weick (L) and Jacob Tobia have purses in tow as they attend the HRC Time to THRIVE conference at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek Hotel Feb. 17. PHOTO COURTESY

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super fans: Nicky Monet (L) and contest winner Heather Abood (R) pose with the wax figure of Selena at Madame Tussauds in Orlando Feb. 13. PHOTO BY JEREMY WILLIAMS

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broadway briThday: (L-R) John Ryan, Brendan O’Connor and Scottie Campbell celebrate John’s birthday with some Broadway Brunch at Hamburger Mary’s in Orlando Feb. 18. PHOTO

7

BY JEREMY WILLIAMS

7

championship Team: Orlando’s Home Wreckers pose after taking the C division first place title in Tampa Bay’s Annual Gasparilla Softball Classic. PHOTO COURTESY

OF SPENCER JOHNSON

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righT swipers: Michael Deeying (L) and Sherri Absher enjoy Watermark’s Swipe Right Party at The Hammered Lamb Feb. 8.

PHOTO BY MAIA MONET

KRISTY WEICK

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announcements

wedding bells

Jason Lambert and Joey Acevedo from Orlando

engAgement dAte:

December 24, 2015

wedding dAte:

March 3, 2018

venue:

The Mezz, The Veranda at Thornton Park

Flowers: Lee James

colors:

Navy, burgundy, gold

dJ or bAnd nAme:

The Bread and Butter Band from Jacksonville

cAterer:

Kevin Fonzo, executive chef, Art in Voyage, and president of The Kevin Fonzo Foundation, and Jamie McFadden, executive chef and owner of Cuisiniers Catering

oFFiciAnt:

Blue Star and Jim Martinek

desserts:

Se7en Bites, Trina Gregory-Propst, chef/owner

wedding PlAnner:

Nikki Price, general manager, Little Lamb Catering and The Hammered Lamb

PhotogrAPher/ videogrAPher:

Chris Stephenson, Snap Out Loud

PHOTO COURTESY OF LAMBERT AND ACEVEDO

j

ason and joey’s new year’s eVe meeting has led to their happily ever after on March 3.

You’ve probably seen Jason Lambert and his fiancé, Joey, around town, since both of them are staples in Orlando’s restaurant and bar scene. Jason owns The Hammered Lamb (the moniker is derived from his last name) and they met while Jason was working on building the bar after leaving The Stardust Lounge.

“I’d been picking up shifts at Brink and The Lodge, and at the last minute, I decided to work a shift at Brink on New Year’s Eve,” says Lambert. Joey came in with a group of friends and Jason noticed him immediately. “He hung out at the bar and we talked all night. After we closed up, Joey and I went out for breakfast — but we never made it! A few weeks later he moved in, and that was five years ago.”

Jason was ready to commit right away. The day after they met, Jason

told some friends that he met the guy he was going to marry. “Joey had a five-year rule, though,” says Lambert. “He needed to be with someone for five years before he got married.”

Three years into their relationship, Joey planned the proposal secretly with Jason’s family and popped the question on Christmas Eve 2015. “I think he knew it would shut me up about getting married,” says Lambert.

“I had absolutely no idea, and my whole family knew. We were at my sister’s house with my parents.”

Joey came out into the living room in a suit and once he started talking, Jason’s nerves kicked in. “I finally realized what was happening when I saw how nervous he was,” says Lambert. “I started crying at that point and the rest is kind of a blur of happiness.”

congrAtulAtions Honey Pot celebrates its 11th anniversary Feb. 26.

BarCodes Orlando celebrates nine years in business on March 5.

Planning the wedding has largely fallen on Jason and their general manager at Little Lamb Catering and The Hammered Lamb, Nikki Price. “I am definitely the stressed-out one,” says Lambert.

“But that’s true of our whole relationship.” Between Jason and Joey, Jason is always the high-strung half and Joey stays cool and calm.

It’s no surprise that the vendors they’ve chosen for the wedding are a selection of some of Orlando’s best-loved small businesses and top-notch entertainers. Trina Gregory-Propst, chef/owner at Se7en Bites will create the couples’ signature desserts, and Jamie McFadden and Kevin Fonzo will tag team the catering.

“We had our anniversary dinner every year on New Year’s Eve at K Restaurant,” says Lambert, leading to their decision to hire Fonzo, K Restaurant’s former chef/owner.

“And we also always try to support local businesses when possible.”

On March 3, 2018, Jason and Joey will say “I do” and dance the night away to tunes by the six-piece Bread and Butter Band from Jacksonville under the venue’s romantic twinkle lights. Sunday, they’ll host a brunch for their families and friends who traveled to be a part of their special day.

“As a gay couple in our community,” says Acevedo, “it’s important to us to exercise the hard-earned right to be recognized in the eye of the law, just as any other loving couple looking to solidify their relationship.” Lambert and Acevedo both believe that they need to be an example to future generations and show the wonderful things that can happen when “love wins.”

“I can’t wait to introduce Jason as my husband,” says Joey. “I’m also looking forward to the little things post-marriage, like framing our marriage license and going on dates in the City Beautiful as a newlywed couple.”

locAl birthdAy Tampa consultant Bart Nagy, rollergirl Jessy “Spikey” Wayles, TIGLFF superstar Renee Cossette, St. Pete Pride board member Stanley Solomons, Orlando photographer/videographer Savannah Powell (Feb. 22); Orlando’s singing cowboy cub CiJay Bailey, The Hammered Lamb owner Jason Lambert, Central Florida realtor David Dorman (Feb. 23); songbird Megan Monesmith, Geek Easy’s Oral Frier, St. Petersburg siren Christina Prestero (Feb. 24); Orlando graphic designer Lisa Buck, Framing of Central Florida co-owner Mike Van Der Leest, Tampa artist and hairstylist Christopher Nejman, Tampa’s Outings & Adventures founder Robert Geller, Tampa Bay transgender activist Janice Carney (Feb. 25); Come Out With Pride’s Matthew Riha (Feb. 26); Tampa softballer Carlos Lopez, Sarasota Ballet marketing manager Mike Maraccini, A/V technician at The Social/Beacham Peter Smith, Orlando aesthete extraordinaire Jim Cundiff, Tampa massage therapist Eduardo Campos (Feb. 27); Orlando photographer J.D. Casto, Polk Pride’s Scott Guira, Disney Cruise Line’s David Baldree (Feb. 28); Fields Motorcars Orlando’s Russ Fowler, Orlando Gay Chorus’ Joel Strack (Feb. 29); drag beauty Chrysanthe Mum, Orlando Gay Chorus founding member Joel Strack (March 1); former Joy MCC pastor Lisa Heilig, Club promoter Tim Calandrino, Orlando community activist Heather Leibowitz, Tampa Bay bowling beauty Carmen Aguilar (March 2); Gay Days’ Steve Erics, photographer extraordinaire Todd Montgomery (March 3); Tampa Bay singer and comedian Judy B. Goode, Sarasota activist Mark Kidd, Club Orlando attendant Arthur Adams, Tampa mama Patty Cannon (Mar. 4); St. Petersburg socialite David Hines (March 5); Orlando playwright, actor, and Watermark contributor Michael Wanzie, TIGLFF’s KJ Mohr, Orlando realtor Rustin Davis, Rollins College theater director Thomas Ouellette, classy colorist Chas Stickney, Les Vixens dancer Allyna NiKohl (March 6); Tampa Bay fashionista Robert Chmura-Pappadeas, Tampa Bay political expert Randy Smith, Tampa Bay bear David Sparks, ponytail commander Cheryl Prestero (March 7).

do you hAve An Announcement? hAving A birthdAy or AnniversAry? did you get A new Job or Promotion?

See your news in Watermark! Send your announcement to Editor@WatermarkOnline.com or go to WatermarkOnline.com/Submit-a-Transition.

—Holly Kapherr Alejos

it’s thAt eAsy!

Do you have an interesting wedding or engagement story you’d like to share with Watermark readers? If so, email the details to Editor@WatermarkOnline.com for consideration as a future feature on this page.

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

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Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

53

the last page

PHOTO BY JAKE STEVENS

Tom Dyer

FOUNDER AND GUIDING LIGHT

Age: 62

hometown: Madison, Wisconsin

identiFies As: Gay

out yeAr:

1980

hire dAte:

July 1994 (day one)

f

AutobiogrAPhy title:

hobbies:

Reading, writing, travel, yoga, cycling, weightlifting, napping, and walking my dog.

Tom first envisioned Watermark back in the spring of 1994.

“I was in Atlanta having lunch at a restaurant in Virginia Highlands, where everyone seemed to be reading Southern Voice,” Tom recalls. “I started fantasizing about people sitting in cafes in Thornton Park reading Central Florida’s LGBT newspaper. The idea was so invigorating that I drove to Southern Voice’s offices and asked to meet its publishers. They loaded me down with all kinds of information, and for the next several months it was all I could think about.”

Supportive friends kicked in $25,000 so that Tom could buy a computer and get started. He hired Keith Peterson and April Gustetter, and together they published Watermark’s first 24-page issue in August 1994. “The name was chosen to reflect a rising tide for the local LGBT community,” Tom says, “but a clever reader quickly pointed out the more inspiring symbolism. A watermark is a transparent insignia on fine stationery, visible only when held up to the light. It’s a wonderful metaphor for the gay experience.”

The timing was right. Within a year Watermark doubled in size and expanded to Tampa Bay. Talented contributors came out of the woodwork to broaden the newspaper’s voice. And elected officials and celebrities began making themselves available for interviews.

ProFessionAl role model:

NPR’s Terry Gross

54

ounder Tom dyer sold

Watermark two years ago, but remains and will forever be the newspaper’s guiding light. His law office is next door, so we see him several times a day when he crosses the parking lot to raid our refrigerator and steal office supplies.

Always the diplomat, he offers opinions when asked and reassurance when needed.

The Scenic Route: A gay boomer’s delayed, distracted path to selfhood.

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

“I’ll never forget walking through the office and hearing Cyndi Lauper’s Betty-Boop-from-Brooklyn voice on our speaker phone,” Tom laughs. “Or Joan Rivers scolding Kirk Hartlage for wearing pajamas to work. Or Phyllis Diller telling Sam Singhaus she was the inspiration for Cruella De Vil. Or Gloria Steinem explaining why the patriarchy is threatened by gays.”

Tom edited the newspaper for eight years, and remained an active publisher and contributor thereafter. We’re still able to talk him into a column from time-to-time. “Watermark has given me so many experiences I never thought I’d have,” Tom says.

Tom maintains a busy law practice. He loves being an uncle to nine nieces and nephews – all blondes. He’s devoted to his Corgi, Seamus. And a couple times a year he breaks away to New York City, mostly to visit friends he made at Watermark who now live there.

“I’m proud of Watermark, and happy that it continues to thrive,” Tom says. “Times have changed since 1994, but there still needs to be an LGBT voice.”

Watermark is the collective product of a team of incredibly hardworking individuals. Over the next series of issues, we’re using this space to introduce each member of our staff and contributors to you. When you see us out and about in the community, stop and say, “Hello.”

We’d love to meet you.

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Feb rua ry 22 - M a rch 7, 2018 // Issue 25.0 4

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