KinPride By Bill Burleson
“Do you have any powder?” Phil asked Heidi. Seems my hairless noggin was like a flair going off in the camera. This wasn’t my first appearance on KinPride, a TV show dedicated to the issues of the GLBT community. Since it probably won’t be my last, I guess I should invest in some powder. Appearing on TV is a lot of fun. The process itself is interesting: when the cameras are running it is the fastest 28 minutes you can spend. However, all that’s preceded by hours of getting ready. But the downtime is good, since it gives me a chance to talk with the host, Mike Smith and his partner, Jim Grabinski. “We’ve been together for about 17 years,” Mike and Jim agree. Mike was a St. Cloud State student from the Twin Cities and Jim a successful businessman originally from Sauk Rapids. Now they live together in St Cloud, produce KinPride, and travel. “We’ve been to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Next we’ll be going for a month to Africa.” I remember running into them in Chicago several years ago and having dinner together. Tonight we’re not in Chicago, instead we’re in Luxemburg. Not the Luxemburg that’s wedged between France and Germany, the one that’s a tiny town just west of St. Cloud. Mike started Kinpride when working a “boring corporate job,” and saw a cable access show and said, “I can do that!” “It was a unique show,” Mike says. “It was cutting edge because there weren’t a lot of gay talk shows” at the time. Since then,
KinPride has enjoyed the kind of success most cable show only dream about. It’s going into its second year with Twin Cities Public Television Channel 17, where it appears on Sunday nights at 10 p.m. As for cable access, he’s on practically everywhere in the state and just recently started showing in Chicago. “Eventually I would like to go to Logo” the GLBT network, Mike says. Sound pie in the sky? Hardly. Mike and Jim were recently on the West Coast, going to meetings. “We met with an agency there.” Plus, they have plenty of street cred: KinPride was the 2005 “Best Cable Access Show” from City Pages and both last year and this year won the Videographer Award from the Association of Markets and Communication Professionals for outstanding production values (thus the concern for my forehead). Mike credits the crew, Phil and Heidi, for that. In fact, the production is interesting: the set is two chairs surrounded by green, with the background the viewer sees inserted like a weatherperson’s map. Mike has a radio show now, too, on KNSI in St Cloud. Story is, he called into a conservative radio show to give his opinion, and impressed the host so much he invited Mike to appear on the show live. Soon he had his own show. Now it’s been 4½ years. “I’m a liberal on a conservative station,” Mike adds. It’s important to remember: we are talking about all this going on in St Cloud. Not Minneapolis, not West Hollywood, St. Cloud. Nothing against St. Cloud, mind you, not at all: there is a thriving little GLBT community there, with a regular bar night and even a film festival. Still, I’ve not heard anyone call Stearns County as a hotbed of liberalism. Obviously, I’m carrying around a lot of stereotypes about how “out” a person can be in Greater Minnesota. “Jim and I are really out there,” Mike says. “I’ve never felt
threatened. I think when you are comfortable with yourself, others are comfortable with you.” And KinPride is an example of how Mike has channeled this confidence into work for the community. “I get to show these organizations to the [GLBT] community, so they know more” about what’s available to them. Plus, he gets to “teach the world about us.” Not that it’s all been a one-way street; he’s gained too. “Once I started the show, I got to really connect with the community.” As I look around the GLBT community, I am amazed—in the face of misunderstanding, discrimination, and, at times, out-right hatred—how often I meet members of the community who not only survive, but thrive. It seems in the absence of support from the greater culture, some people are given the opportunity to be leaders and rather than be squashed, instead find their voice. Says Mike, “Just be proud of who you are.” That, and bring powder for your forehead. For more information about KinPride, visit www.kinpride.com. To read past stories or to contact me, visit www.forwhomthebilltolls.org