Boston Spirit May | Jun 2014

MAY|JUN 2014

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More Firsts for Mass?

Healey campaigns to be out state AG and Tisei for GOP U.S. House Rep.

Years On ‘It’s important to talk about the divorce,’ say the Goodridges: The 7 plaintiff couples assess a decade of marriage equality

THEY’RE HERE, THEY’RE QUEER (MOSTLY), AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THEM

.Gerald and

Paul at the MFA

Collector couple shares world-class quilt collection in Boston

SpeakEasy Isn’t Afraid ‘Carrie,’ Broadway’s most famous flop, stages a comeback

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From The Publisher Happy 10th anniversary to marriage equality in Massachusetts. Apparently the traditional gift for 10 years of marriage is tin. I was going to send you all a lovely gift of tin, but due to postal regulations, you are getting this lovely magazine instead :-).

Ten years, huh? Where has the time gone? What started as a great victory in Massachusetts is now law in all six New England states and so many more across the U.S. It’s been a decade of change, and I have a feeling the next ten years will be even better.

It’s been a busy few months for the gang at Boston Spirit.

We had a great breakfast event with the Boston Red Sox, our annual LGBT Executive Networking was a big hit once again this year. We had nearly 1,000 people attend and our guest speaker, Paula Poundstone, was incredible. She kept the room laughing throughout her talk. Thank you to all of our sponsors, exhibitors, and attendees. Next up … our Summer Sunset Cruise on June 18 (see page 91).

I might be a little early, but I also want to wish everyone a very happy Pride. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Boston Pride Festival as well as the North Shore Pride Festival in Salem, Massachusetts. I hope you will be sure to come by the Boston Spirit booth to say hi.

As New Englanders we have a lot to be Prideful for. Our little piece of the country has led the way in LGBT rights thanks to some very supportive politicians, some extremely hard working activists, and a community of LGBT citizens (and allies) who refused to take no for an answer. You’ve all worked very hard to get to this ten year anniversary so enjoy it, raise a glass, celebrate with pride.

David Zimmerman Publisher

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As We Go To Press …

7 Lessons From Marriage Equality “I think it’s important to talk about the divorce,” said Julie Goodridge to our lifestyle editor Scott Kearnan for this issue’s feature on the seven marriage equality plaintiff couples at ten years of legal marriage equality in the U.S. that began in Massachusetts on May 17, 2004.

What Kearnan captured are seven lessons of marriage equality from those who made it possible.

1. It’s important. The first lesson comes from the Goodridges, who discovered more of marriage’s benefits from their separation: “What I learned is that this institution also guides you through dismantling a relationship,” said Hillary. “That’s a really important, good thing when you’re at your most vulnerable.”

2. It’s emotional: No surprise here, but Gloria Bailey-Davies (plaintiff with Linda Bailey-Davies) articulated a sentiment widely understood and felt when she said: “It makes me want to cry, to think how fast things are changing and how many people’s lives have been transformed.”

3. It’s inspiring: “I remember gay friends with great experience and education who felt as if they had a glass ceiling above them. They didn’t aspire to get to the top,” says Robert Compton, with his husband David Wilson. “Today they recognize that they can reach for the stars.”

4. It’s personal: This lesson has proved a critical piece to gaining equality across the country, and has been replicated in equal marriage successes from DesMoines to Maine. “It put a human face to the issue,” said Michael Horgan with his husband Edward Balmelli. “It’s easy to hate gay marriage in the abstract. It’s a lot harder to hate Ed and Mike.”

5. It’s generational: With marriage equality happening so fast, the younger generation finds it hard to believe there was any controversy. “There’s a

4 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Contribute your opinion: editor@bostonspiritmagazine.com

completely different generation that sees being gay as a non-issue,” says Ellen Wade with her wife Maureen Brodoff. “During the case we spoke to high school classes, including some at Kate’s [the couple’s daughter] school. These were teenagers two or three years away from voting, and when you’d ask them about their attitudes toward gay people, they’d say ‘Of course they should be able to get married!’”

6. It’s historical: Ten years on, yes, it’s history! “My sister-in-law always says that she can’t wait until her grandchildren read about our case in a history book,” said Gary Chalmers with his husband Richard Linnell.

7. It’s not over: If there’s any doubt that we still have work to do, consider the encounter that Heidi Nortonsmith had with classmates while taking classes at Oberlin College in Ohio last year when the Supreme Court struck own DOMA: “If I had been at home in Northampton, it would have been a nonstop celebration,” said Heidi with her wife Gina Nortonsmith.

“Instead I was back at my alma mater, 30 years later, feeling like on one hand we’ve come so far, and on the other, here I am having some of the same old experiences. Everyone was talking about their kids and families. And when I mentioned mine, my partner in the program — someone I had been studying with, eating with, and getting to know for 45 days — heard what I said, he turned on his heels and walked away.”

Thank you to Hillary and Julie, Linda and Gloria, Robert and David, Mike and Ed, Maureen and Ellen, Richard and Gary, and Gina and Heidi for putting yourselves on the front line for all of us. Thank you for your insight and courage.

We will be sure to keep your lessons in mind as we help to extend marriage equality to Ohio and the other 32 hold-out states.

But for today, for the plaintiffs and everyone else who enjoys the right to marry:

www.tjx.com

PROUD

TOGETHER

Contents

Seasonal Let Us Introduce You

MAY|JUN 2014 | VOLUME 10 | ISSUE 3

Say hello to this year’s list of gays and allies who are pushing equality forward.

42

Culture

Feature Nation’s First Out State Attorney General?

26

First Out Gay Republican in the U.S. House?

28

10 Years On

30

If candidate Richard Tisei wins, he would rather be known for solving the nation’s debt problem and creating jobs

12 78

The Goodridges famously split, but the other plaintiff couples remain together; here’s how happily ever after turns out a decade later

Winning Idea

Transgender Man Denied Fertility Services in Massachusetts 40 Baystate Health embroiled in an official anti-discrimination suit

72

Every Stitch Tells a Story

74

Pleasures of the Dark

76

Monsoon Season

78

Collector couple Gerald Roy and Paul Pilgrim share world-class quilt collection at the MFA

Hit List 8 Corrections 9 True Colors 10 Hold the Presses!

11 Shades of day 11 Winning Idea 12 Ricardo Recommends 14 Pride: Beyond Boston 18 Go Figure 19 Word Is Out 20 Community Cliffnotes 22

If Maura Healey has her way, Massachusetts will once again be a pioneer for LGBTs

Lord of the Dance

Celebrated and influential, gay choreographer Mark Morris is no longer dance’s ‘bad boy’

Spotlight

Every Stitch Tells a Story

68

From legendary flop to re-tooled success, ‘Carrie the Musical’ rises in Boston

42 74

She’s Baaaack!

At the Provincetown International Film Festival, the movies are good enough to make you leave the beach A ‘Drag Race’ winner dominates the Provincetown Art House this summer

Scene Boston Spirit Executive Breakfast Series 80 5th Annual LGBT & Allies St. Patrick’s Day Celebration 81 Mustachio Bashio 81 Boston Pride Open House 81 Pride and Passion Gala and Auction 82 GLBTQ Domestic Violence Project Winter Plunge 84 Pride in Our Workplace 84 Gibson House Annual Gala 84 7th Annual Boston Cornerstone Point Foundation Gala 85 Boston Spirit 2014 LGBT Executive Networking Night 86

Calendar New England Events Pride: Boston Pride Pride: Beyond Boston

88 90 90

Coda

Monsoon Season

Hail Mary

The lesbian ‘Same Love’ singer headlines Boston Pride 2014

ON THE COVER 10 Years On

6 | BOSTON SPIRIT

30

96

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SPOTLIGHT Trends STORY Scott Kearnan

Hit List NEWS, NOTES, AND TO-DOS FOR EVERY GAY AGENDA

GET YOUR HANDS ON

a copy of Reclaimed, a new book from Bostonbased author Ray Cook. Growing up as an otherwise “model Mormon boy,” Cook was excommunicated from his church for one reason: he’s gay. The resulting shame and ostracism that followed caused Cook to go down a dark and self-destructive path. Reclaimed depicts the journey down that road, and the slow, steady climb back to happiness and health.

More: rclmd.com

STEP UP and set a personal fundraising

goal for the 29th annual AIDS Walk & Run, AIDS Action Committee’s largest yearly benefit with nearly 15,000 participants.

The organization expects to raise $1 million from the event on Sunday, June 1, which includes a looping 6.2-mile walk and 5K run that begins and ends at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade. More: AAC.org

Theater Offensive, which turns “25 years bold!” this year. The best birthday present you can give: Your support, by buying a ticket to the annual “climACTS!” extravaganza, which this year welcomes Tony Award-winning Kinky Boots star Billy Porter to the Wilbur Theatre on Monday, May 19. More: thetheateroffensive.org

OFFER CONGRATS to new Boston

Pride president Sylvain Bruni, who started working with the organization as a volunteer in 2004 and joined the board of directors in 2007. A systems engineer, Bruni is active with many other LGBT initiatives: co-chairing the communications committee of InterPride and working with Fenway Health’s Young Leaders Council. Boston Pride also announced the addition of fundraising guru Staci Sylvain Stift, former president of Bruni Pride St. Louis, to its board of directors. Under the theme “Be Yourself, Change the World,” Boston Pride will rock the Hub from June 6-15. More: bostonpride.org

GIVE A STANDING O to Boston’s eternally DOWNLOAD “Wing Ma’am,” a new social cutting-edge queer organization The

Bill y Porter of “Kinky Boots” at climACTS!

networking app for iPhones and Androids that is designed to connect lesbians with women and events in their city community.

Yes, you can meet it to meet singles — but the interface is designed with greater diversity of purpose, allowing users to organize everything from dance parties to book clubs and hook up (however you define that) with local lesbians. More: wingmaam.com

Steven Taetz

DISCOVER THE MUSIC of

out artist Steven Taetz, who recently released his debut self-titled album. Though Taetz might be familiar to some listeners for past dance-pop confections, his latest takes a folksy acoustic approach. The NYC-based but Alberta-raised singer co-wrote each song with a collaborator from a different Canadian province, creating a storytellerstyle approach to his music that touches on universal themes of love, loss, and longing for home. More: steventaetz.com

TAKE A LOOK

at Reflection, a short film about a young single mother’s struggle to understand the gender-nonconforming behavior of her 8-year old son — and about the enduring power of love to overcome fear of the unfamiliar. Written and directed by Hazuki Aikawa, Reflection is starting to shine in the festival circuit, and will be featured in the Berkshire International Film Festival when its curtains go up in Western Mass. from May 29-June 1. A trailer for the insightful, inspiring film — and information on how to support its distribution — are featured on its website. More: facebook.com/ shortfilmreflection [x]

MAY|JUN 2014 | VOLUME 10 | ISSUE 3 PUBLISHER

David Zimmerman EDITOR IN CHIEF

James A. Lopata ART DIRECTOR

Dean Burchell

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING

Jenn Dettmann jenn@bostonspiritmagazine.com

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Chris George, Michael Poulin

PUBLISHING/SALES CONTACT

CONTRIBUTING LIFESTYLE EDITOR

publisher@bostonspiritmagazine.com 781-223-8538

CONTRIBUTING ARTS EDITOR

Boston Spirit magazine. A Division of Jake Publishing, LLC Published by Jake Publishing, LLC. Copyright 2004 by Jake Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this periodical may be reproduced without the written permission of Boston Spirit magazine. Neither the publishers nor the advertisers will be held responsible for any errors found in the magazine.

The publishers accept no liability for the accuracy of statements made by advertisers.

Publication of the name or photograph of any person, organization or business in this magazine does not reflect upon one’s sexual orientation in any way.

Boston Spirit Magazine 398 Columbus Ave #395 Boston, MA 02116

Scott Kearnan

Loren King

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Robert B.

Dimmick, Tony Giampetruzzi, Mark Krone, Fred Kuhr, Ricardo Rodriguez

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Joel Benjamin, Emil Cohen,

COVER IMAGE Joel Benjamin ON THE WEB

BostonSpiritMagazine.com TALK TO US Send comments, questions and encomia to feedback@bostonspiritmagazine.com EDITORIAL CONTACT

SEP|OCT 2013

editor@bostonspiritmagazine.com

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Kathy Griffin Boston

‘It’s a dream audience: people who are smart and get your references,’ says gay fave comedienne of Bostonians

Happy 30th Club Café!

Our multiplex community center shows no signs of aging

Mayor Races Then and Now

The last open Boston campaign— 1983—was first time gays wooed

November 18, 2003

ARTS ARTS ARTS ARTS PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW The day that changed the gay rights movement forever

Corrections

PREVIEW

Due to an editorial error the headline in the March|April 2014 issue about Corey Johnson incorrectly noted where he was from. He is originally from Massachusetts, not Maine.

The photos of the Salt Box Inn for the story in the March|April 2014 issue were taken by John Caplice.

SPOTLIGHT Fashion STORY Scott Kearnan 2(x)ist “Summer Plaid Cabo” trunks (in turquoise), $98 at Saks Fifth Avenue.

True Colors

It’s the season for fun, sun, and surf. And whether you plan to spend the summer ahead lazing by a pool in P’town or relaxing on a beach somewhere fabulous and far away, your water-ready wardrobe should shine bright. Neutral palettes were retired with the snow boots. Now plunge into vivid, spirited styles—and a touch of fashionable color blocking— that are really bringing the heat. [x]

[FAR LEFT] Penfield

“Quint” board shorts (in peach), $80 at SAULT New England.

[LEFT] Ted Baker London

“Gatley” geo print swim short (in pink), $110 at Ted Baker London.

Pret-a-Surf long-sleeve rash guard with back zip ($225) and retro bikini bottom ($125) at Revere Hotel Boston Common. The line, founded by Vogue entertainment editor Jillian Demling and Annie Leibovitz’s studio manager Karen Mulligan, outfits the rooftop pool staff and is sold in the lobby retail space.

[AT RIGHT] Daniela Corte “Vivian” one-piece (in color block print), $195 at Daniela Corte.

WHERE TO SHOP DANIELA CORTE 211 Newbury Street,

Boston, 617-608-4778, danielacorte.com

NORDSTROM 290 Speen Street,

Natick, 508-318-2600, nordstrom.com

REVERE HOTEL BOSTON COMMON 200 Stuart Street, Boston, 617-482-1800, reverehotel.com

[ABOVE] BCA color

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Boylston Street, Boston, 617-2628500, saksfifthavenue.com SAULT NEW ENGLAND 577 Tremont Street, Boston, 857-239-9434, saultne.com TED BAKER LONDON 201 Newbury Street, Boston, 617-450-8339, tedbaker-london.com 10 | BOSTON SPIRIT

SPOTLIGHT Beauty

SPOTLIGHT Residence STORY Scott Kearnan

Hold the Presses!

IF YOU THINK THE SOUTH END “SURE HAS CHANGED” OVER THE YEARS, HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT. YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ANYTHING YET.

Shades of day

Next year the luxury residences at Sepia will put their stamp on Ink Block, an upcoming mixed-use development that will breathe new life into the stretch of Harrison Avenue where the former Boston Herald headquarters once stood.

The project encompasses six distinct buildings that will house high-end apartments, a massive Whole Foods Market, about 35,000 additional square feet of ground-level retail and restaurant space, and many unique amenities: among them a rooftop pool, bicycle repair facility, and “Club K9,” a dog wash station for four-legged residents.

Sepia, a collection of 83 ultraglam condos, sounds like it will be the feather in this alreadyimpressive cap to the burgeoning SoWa district. Though the area is rooted in an industrial history — those rambling brick structures were once thriving mills, shoe and piano factories — the Sepia residences introduce a distinctly contemporary, European sense of style and sophistication. Each condo, priced from $459,000

Lipstick lesbians and drag queens, take note. Boston fashion designer and hair stylist Daniel Hernandez has added seven luscious shades of lipstick to his Modern Face makeup line. From the nude of Brazilian Bare, to a subtle pink (Socialite and Tease) for daytime or the office, to four more dramatic shades of red, the idea for his line, says Hernandez, is a shade for every part of the day that protects and enhances the lips. Free of preservatives and fragrance, the matte lipsticks are hypoallergenic and made in the USA with no animal testing and boast softening properties such as Sodium Hyaluronic, Squalene and Vitamin E. I tried the striking Red Carpet and it went on like silk, lasting much of the day, and didn’t bleed or clump. I also like the slim silver tube with the insignia for DH Studios, Hernandez’s Newbury Street salon where this rising star works magic on hair, face and clothing.

At $25, it’s become my go-to lipstick. Visit DH Studios, or you can order online at www. dhstudios.com [Loren King]

to about $2 million (40 percent are already under agreement), is defined by sleek, linear design schemes from Elkus/Manfredi Architects, the firm behind properties like the InterContinental Boston and other mixeduse projects like Liberty Wharf.

In Sepia, where residential options range from studios to three-bedroom homes, kitchens gleam with white units of minimal hardware, bathrooms sparkle with designer fixtures and glass enclosed showers, and bedrooms and living areas boast glossy blond wood finishes.

Residents have access to a lush rooftop lounge with skyline views, and most units have balconies: staggered across the building’s countenance, they lend a jewel box-like quality to its façade of glass, metal and brick.

But residents are really buying a lifestyle, says Ted Tye, managing partner of National Development Associates of New England, Ink Block’s developer. “It’s about more than the immediate physical structure,” says Tye, who envisions the Ink Block community as a

neighborhood within a neighborhood: one that embraces the South End’s existing identity as a hub of Boston’s arts and dining scenes, yet “moves the neighborhood’s center of gravity” to a vibrant, energetic new locale where “the lights stay on” a little later.

That kind of setting is important to luxury buyers right now, says Sue Hawkes, president and CEO of The Collaborative Companies, which has opened a Sepia sales center at 401 Harrison Avenue. “It’s all about ‘live, work, play’ appeal,” says Hawkes, who says that interest in residences has come from without the existing community (suburban empty nesters craving a return to the city) and within; there has been much interest from gay South End couples who are looking to “trade up” to modern construction.

“People want to walk out their door and be surrounded by places to eat, entertainment, and culture,” says Hawkes.

“Sepia is more than four walls; it’s an integrative lifestyle.” [x]

MAY|JUN 2014 | 11

SPOTLIGHT Dining STORY Scott Kearnan PHOTOS Melissa Ostrow

Winning Idea

GOODBYE, FRITZ. HELLO, TROPHY ROOM Clifford Long remembers the reaction his parents received when they opened Fritz in 1983. “You’re opening a gay bar?” wails Long, imitating the incredulous response. “It was controversial, but they didn’t care. They would hang out at Fritz all the time. It was their world.”

And how the world has changed. “The other day I asked my 16-year old son if he had any gay friends,” explains Long.

“Of course he does. Two of the guys are a couple and at our house all the time. My son didn’t understand why I’d even ask that question. That’s the way the world is going.”

That boundary-free world is the one that Long’s new business, Trophy Room, will embrace when it opens in mid-April.

A head-to-toe makeover has breathed new life into Fritz’s former space in the South End’s Chandler Inn. Gone is the late gay sports bar, and in its place is an 82-seat restaurant that invites everyone in the neighborhood to slip into leather banquettes in its handsome dining room (designed by the same team behind Boston hotspots like Eastern Standard and Cinquecento) or slide up to the bar for classic cocktails and craft beers. (Don’t

12 | BOSTON SPIRIT

worry, Sox fans. There are still TVs.) Overseeing the space is general manager Delphine Chauffier, formerly of Newbury Street’s swanky La Voile. Floor-to-ceiling windows open to breezy Berkeley Street; next year, Long hopes to add an additional 20 or so sidewalk seats.

When Fritz closed in January, many LGBT locals were disappointed by the loss of yet another legendary gay bar. (Another one bites the dust!) Long says it wasn’t a decision he made lightly. But he also believes it was a necessary one. Business had been dropping by about five percent per year for the last five years, he says. And though Fritz was unfalteringly popular with its devoted longtime regulars, the bar was struggling to attract the next generation of gay patrons: younger folks who enjoy mixed crowds and expect a food-driven environment that can keep up with the rest of the trendy South End dining scene. “Maybe we could have hung on for a few more years,” says Long. But nostalgia aside, it was clear that world had changed—and the business needed to change with it. “You don’t have to hit the wall to know that it’s out there.”

“If you want to be a great bar now, you have to have great food. That’s what it takes to succeed,” says chef Evan Campbell, who presides over the dining room from an interactive display kitchen.

Campbell, a young Cordon Bleu-trained chef, has developed a menu that is an “international mix” of plates that cull from his background growing up in the South (gumbo) and French culinary influences (duck boudin). Previously, Campbell helped Lynn gay club 47 Central re-launch as a more food-focused destination, Pub 47 Central, that remained gay-friendly while luring new crowds with a more ambitious menu. (Sound familiar?) Along with Trophy Room’s bar manager William Barr Yerxa, formerly of Cambridge hipster haven The Friendly Toast, Campbell hails from a 20-something generation that invites these more inclusive social spaces.

If you build it, and it’s delicious, they will come—whether it flies a rainbow flag outside or not.

But though Trophy Room will wind up welcoming a wider swath of clientele, it has no plans to forsake Fritz’s legacy as a hub of Boston gay life. Its very name is homage to Fritz. The walls are lined with long glass cases filled with trophies from gay sports teams that were collected over the years. Behind the bar are several familiar faces like Freddy TK, a favorite Fritz vet of 22 years. And the spot will continue to throw its annual Chandler Street Block Party for Pride. (Long promises he’ll add a little extra oomph to this year’s celebration.) And Campbell is continuing some past hallmarks, like Sunday’s famous “Fritz Brunch.”

Ultimately, Trophy Room aims to retain certain traditions while adding elements that will enhance, not erase, the location’s legacy. Though Fritz will be missed, Trophy Room’s team expects to be welcomed just as warmly. “The curiosity alone will be enough to make people come back,” says Campbell. “And when they do, they’ll be impressed—not disappointed.”

“We’re welcoming to everyone, but at the end of the day this is still the South End,” says Long. Even in a changing world, some things stay the same. “This location has a lot of history, and I don’t think anything could ever take that away.” [x]

Who says you can’t have a beach house in town?

Certainly not us.

Introducing the Urban Beach House at The Attwater, the award-winning Lark Hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. The vibe of the beach in the heart of town — with outdoor-style showers in the rooms and a bold coastal decor. Stay “summer” year-round.

w w w.theatt water.com 401-846 -74 4 4

Lark Hotels embrace the locations they are in — but in playful, unexpected ways. Learn more about our collection of design boutique hotels in iconic New England destinations. Visit larkhotels.com/spirit

KENNEbuNKport

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NarragaNsEtt

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portLaNd

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SPOTLIGHT Travel STORY Ricardo Rodriguez PHOTOS Dan Natola SPECIAL THANKS Alina Wolhardt

Ricardo Recommends リカルドのお勧め

Soo’s Tokyo

秀美の東京

14 | BOSTON SPIRIT

AN ULTIMATE INSIDER GUIDE TO ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING CITIES IN THE WORLD

世界で最も素敵な都市への紹介 Tokyo is known for its traditionmeets-cutting-edge vibe, its massive size, tall buildings, stylish dwellers, and its crazy nightlife.

This city has been immortalized in film, music, literature, photography, and every other medium you can imagine. The thing about it is: everything you’ve heard or seen can be experienced as a visitor.

Tokyo happens to be one of my favorite cities in the world. Its massiveness does not interfere with its exquisite attention to detail and service, making it a delight to visit. Everything about it is an exercise in contrast: it is vibrant and relaxed, large and intimate, boisterous and quiet, extravagant and humble, and I truly cannot get enough of it. The non-stop flights from Boston through Japan Airlines make it very easy to travel (tickets can also be booked through American Airlines). JAL offers their new fleet of “Dreamliners” for the voyage and it is really a wonderful experience whether in coach or business (it’s a two class plane — no first class). Check availability at JAL.com Once you arrive at the airport, public transportation, in particular the train/subway system is the way to go. With over 1,000 train stations (and reportedly as many distinct neighborhoods) it might look daunting, but it is a very straightforward logical system.

For more details check www. tokyometro.jp/en.

Recently I caught up in Tokyo with my friend Soo (Hidemi Hamano-Schlageter) and asked her to give us a tour of her beloved city. Soo is nothing less than Tokyo’s It-Girl. Not only is she a PR maven (with her agency JUST ANOTHER AGENCY) and a new mom (her son Jun is the cutest thing!) but she is a staple in the city’s cultural and social scenes — particularly in the fashion, music and food industries.

Here are Soo’s favorite places STAY

宿

Airbnb

www.airbnb.com/locations/tokyo “Airbnb is a hosting website that gives you good, affordable places to stay in Tokyo. Usually foreigners who live here rent their houses/rooms, making it easier to communicate with them.”

Park Hyatt Tokyo (Shinjuku)

tokyo.park.hyatt.jp

“This hotel is mostly known as the ‘Lost in Translation’ movie set, but it is absolutely one of my favorite hotels in the entire city. Its New York Grill and Bar (located on the 52nd floor) has

amazing food and drinks, with breathtaking views of Tokyo city.

Also the Spa and Pool are excellent! Even if you don’t stay here, you must come and visit at least once!”

Granbell Hotel (Shibuya)

www.granbellhotel.jp/en/shibuya “Located in the heart of Shibuya, this boutique hotel is super convenient, stylish and affordable. I recommend all my friends stay here when they visit. “

食

EAT Tatemichiya Izakaya (Daikanyama)

B1F, 30-8 Sarugakucho, Shibuya, Tokyo Prefecture 150-0033, +81 3-5459-3431 “This place is also known as the ‘punk rock’ Izakaya. It is a must go-to place when you are in town.

It is an Izakaya-style restaurant where you can try all kinds of local Japanese food and Shochu/ Sake, while enjoying all sorts of rock/punk music. And their décor consists of posters of Western and Japanese bands and artists. It is fun, delicious and affordable.”

Farmer’s Market at Unu (Aoyama)

Farmersmarkets.jp

“This weekend-only place is fun to check out. You will get to see all kinds of different yummy food trucks and local/native veggies and fruits for sale.”

MAY|JUN 2014 | 15

Ricardo Rodriguez Is a celebrated and award-winning real estate and lifestyle expert based in Boston. He regularly appears in local and national TV shows, contributes to various publications in the areas of real estate, home, living and fashion, and is a tireless advocate and supporter of many and various charitable causes.

246 Common (Omotesando/ Aoyama)

246common.jp

“This new open air community place was built for a limited time. It will be closing in June 2014. If you can make it by then, it is worth the try!

This place is outdoors with all these little shops offering yummy food and drinks.

They also have DJ events and people just chill out and mingle.“ Ukai Tei Teppanyaki (Omotesando)

www.omotesando-ukaitei.jp “Absolutely one of the best Teppanyaki you will ever have. It is a fancy pricey place, but the food is just amazing and the interior is gorgeous!”

DRINK

飲

Kinfolk (Nakameguro)

Kinfolklife.com/tokyo

“This super local cozy bar is a fun place to visit, they have good cocktails and people are very friendly. This isn’t a tourist place at all so you will get to interact with some real locals. Most of the clientele are artist, designers, bikers … a very interesting crowd comes here.”

Bar Trench (Ebisu)

www.small-axe.net/bar-trench “This place is kind of hard to find, located near Ebisu station. They have delicious cocktails and rare spirits.

They are also known as the Absinthe bar. A must visit.”

Beat Cafe (Shibuya/Shinsen)

www.facebook.com/beatcafe

“Very small and dodgy, and loved by youngsters and foreigners. The owner is very cool. They have interesting events every other day.

Good music, good vibe, cheap drinks!”

SHOP

店

John Lawrence Sullivan (Nakameguro)

www.john-lawrence-sullivan.com “Very interesting Japanese designer — used to be a boxer and became a designer.

Started off with tailored men’s wear and now he also does women’s. Definitely one of the must-see designers in town.”

Isetan Department Stores (Shinjuku)

www.isetan.co.jp

“This is a department store where you can find everything you want. They have an amazing selection of brands for both men and women.

Must check the Food Court in Level B1 … you will love the place and never want to leave!”

Faline Shop (Harajuku/ Takeshitadoori)

www.bambifaline.com

“This is where the ‘Harajuku Girl’ originated. They represent Harajuku fashion and, despite the size of the shop, it’s a fun experience for everyone. All the celebrities and top designers come here to check it out when they are in town.”

16 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Don Quijote (Shibuya / Nakameguro/ Roppongi)

www.donki.com

“This is a fun place where you can find cheap, funny Japanese goods like toys (all sorts of toys), character socks, snacks, daily necessities and so on. These stores are all over the city and they have everything! You will have so much fun shopping for souvenirs.”

PLAY

遊

Vacant (Harajuku)

www.vacant.vc

“This is an interesting space where they hold events, have a gallery and shops. They always have good art shows and music and food events.

Very chill place in the heart of Harajuku near Takeshita Doori.”

Mori Museum (Roppongi Hills)

www.mori.art.museum/eng

“If you are into museums, this is a good place to check. It is located inside the Roppongi Hills (mall) so it’s easy to access and they have interesting line-ups and exhibits.”

Fujirock Festival (Naeba Ski Resort)

Fujirock-eng.com

“This is one of the biggest summer music festivals in Japan. It always has impressive artists and the surrounding nature is so beautiful. If you can make it, it is a mustdo once in your life!”

Listen to Soo but here are my own recommendations Westin Tokyo (Ebisu)

www.westin-tokyo.co.jp/english I have stayed a couple of times in this hotel and I love everything about it. The rooms are spacious and half of them have views of Mount Fuji. Plus their breakfast is quite delicious. The Ebisu neighborhood is super central and convenient.

Bodega @ And A (Shibuya)

1 Chome-34 Jinnan, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0041, Japan Boston’s Bodega, in collaboration with Tokyo’s And A, opened a limited concept pop-up shop in the heart of Shibuya (complete with the eponymous store front bodega and secret sliding door entrance). The inventory is out of control, plus you get to support our local peeps.

It’s open through January 2015.

Choriri (Ebisu)

150-0013 Tokyo, Shibuya, Ebisu, 4−22−11 Not far from the Westin Tokyo, with no website, business card and barely a sign this place offers some of the best Ramen in town.

Forget about what you think you know about the popular food, this place will blow your mind. [x]

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SPOTLIGHT Pride STORY Scott Kearnan

Pride: Beyond Boston We love the Hub’s incredible Pride events.

(You can check out what’s in store in the Calendar department on page 88.) But we felt obliged to give a little love to some of the other events happening around New England: from a North Shore newcomer to a big bash in a small state. Here’s a quick guide for what to do, where to stay, and other vitals for enjoying three other fabulous Prides.

RHODE ISLAND PRIDE: JUNE 20-22 Why go: Little Rhodie always does it big for Pride, and there’s a wildness to some of the block parties that surpasses more buttonedup Boston. The Providence scene is a little like Vegas: what happens there, stays there.

What to do: Most of the fun happens Saturday, when the riverside PrideFest goes down on South Water Street starting at noon. But be sure to check out New England’s only illuminated night parade, which winds through downtown — where most of the bars are and block parties will be. Dark Lady always has an especially colorful celebration in store. (More: prideri.com)

North Shore Pride PHOTO Social Palates

Where to stay: Book early, because the Courtyard Marriott is offering $124 rates as part of its Pride partnership. (See the RI Pride site for details.) For a sleeker, but pricier experience, you’d be hard-pressed to beat the contemporary Hotel Providence (hotelprovidence.com).

Where to eat: The culinary tradition of Johnson & Wales University ensures a strong local food scene. Among the best is Farmstead Inc. (farmsteadinc.com), where chef Matt Jennings’ focus on artisanal, native New England foods recently earned him his second “Best Chef: Northeast” award nomination from the James Beard Foundation. The American bistro Blaze (blazerestaurants.com) is also gay-friendly, having hosted events for LGBT-related nonprofits like AIDS Care Ocean State.

Who to meet: Speaking of AIDS Care, keep an eye out for development director Stephen Hartley — better known as Kitty Litter (facebook.com/klitter), the unofficial First Lady of gay Providence.

NORTH SHORE PRIDE: JUNE 21 Why go: The Pride celebrations happen in Salem, so you can spend time exploring the

18 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Vermont Pride Witch City — which has recently emerged as an area bastion of progressive LGBT affairs. (See our profile on staunch ally Mayor Kim Driscoll on page 64.)

What to do: Starting at noon, the parade winds its way from the post office to Salem Common, where a festival with live music, dance and grub and goods vendors ensues from 1-5 p.m. Then hit the official afterparty at Murphy’s Pub (murphyspubsalem. com) from 4-10 p.m. (More: northshorepride. org) Where to stay: For something intimate, book a room at gay-owned Morning Glory Bed & Breakfast (morninglorybb.com), a centrally located gem with a spacious roof deck

and quaint country ambience (and supposedly, some friendly spooks) that make it the city’s #1 B&B pick on TripAdvisor. For a larger hotel experience, check in to the historic Hawthorne Hotel (hawthornehotel. com), a red brick charmer with whiffs of a classy bygone era.

Where to eat: For tasty and casual tavernstyle fare, In A Pig’s Eye (inapigseye.com) has plenty of appeal; its monthly “80s Night” is a hit in the local gay scene. The nightclub-like vibe of Opus (salemopus.com), a sushi- and small plate-centric restaurant and lounge, is swanky and sexy.

Who to meet: Hook up with the team behind Go Out Loud (gooutloud.com), an

SPOTLIGHT Numbers STORY Staff

Go Figure 2.2 Times more likely individuals in samesex couples are to be partnered with another race/ethnicity than individuals in oppositesex couples. [Source: The Williams Institute]

1 IN 7 LGBT online daters are closeted. [Source: WhatsYourPrice.com]

Hotel Vermont Vermont Pride

parade, and festival in Battery Park are among the attractions, while a Northern Decadence Food & Travel Expo hosted by the Vermont Gay Tourism Association will be a tasty “festival within the festival.”

(More: pridevermont.com) Where to stay: The boutique-style Hotel Vermont (hotelvt.com) is a perfect blend of traditional and modern, an upscale property where New England hallmarks (think flannel accents, birch woods and teddy bears on-demand) receive contemporary treatments. Though it’s about 30 minutes from Burlington, the gay-owned Moose Meadow Lodge is a must-see “luxury log home.” Its owner even performed the first legal same-sex marriage in the state.

North Shore Pride PHOTO Social Palates LGBT-focused events and networking business behind the city’s most fabulous fetes.

PRIDE VERMONT: SEPTEMBER 7-14 Why go: The Green Mountain State adorns itself in all colors of the rainbow for a full week. Pride takes place in picturesque Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, and this year’s theme is “Generations of Pride” — a nod to its embrace of all ages in the LGBT community.

What to do: The kickoff, an annual High Heel Race down Church Street, always brings together a bevy of fleet footed drag queens. A Women’s Tea Dance, float-filled

Where to eat: Make your way to Hen of the Wood (henofthewood.com), an acclaimed restaurant featuring daily-changing menus that make the most of artisanal Vermont ingredients. For something more casual, but equally delicious, American Flatbread (americanflatbread.com) creates to-die-for pizzas using fresh local ingredients baked before your eyes in a huge, primitive woodfired oven.

Who to meet: While you’re there, connect with RU12? (ru12.org), a Burlington-based LGBT advocacy organization that hosts gay nightlife events and plans important social and social justice programs across the state. [x]

CHANGING VIEWS ON MARRIAGE EQUALITY

2011 1999 1997 The first year that a majority of Americans thought same-sex marriage should be legal. [Source:

Gallup]

The first year that a majority of Americans thought that gay or lesbian relationships between consenting adults should be legal.

The first year that a majority of Americans approved of interracial marriage between a Caucasian and an AfricanAmerican.

[Source: Gallup] [Source: Gallup]

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SPOTLIGHT News STORY Randy Gomes

Word Is Out President Obama recently announced the appointment of Douglas M. Brooks as the Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). A leading HIV/ AIDS policy expert with a MSW from UMASS Boston, Douglas most recently served as Senior Vice President for Community, Health, and Public Policy at the Justice Resource Institute based in Boston. As the Director of ONAP, he will lead the Administration’s work to reduce new HIV infections, improve health outcomes for people living with HIV, and eliminate HIV health disparities in the United States.

Worcester Pride recently announced that the theme for 2014’s festivities would be “Just As I Am.” For the first time in the event’s history the theme and logo was determined by a popular vote of Pride supporters. The Worcester Pride Parade & Festival, which takes place September 6, seeks to channel the spirit of the Worcester Revolt, the small but historically important event that was the first time in colonial America that a local Militia drew arms against King George’s army during the American Revolution.

The organization believes that same spirit of righteous defiance is necessary if the gay community is to march bravely ahead into future greatness.

Deafening determination.

That is the only description that can be described to the outrage spreading across social media and the Twitterverse over CBS’s and MY38’s decision to breach the agreement to air “Quiet Desperation” a reality series showcasing the best and brightest in Boston’s creative scene.

Though it’s not the main focus of the series, the show has both highlighted up and coming LGBT artists such as local standout comedian Mehran Khagani, as well as tackling issues like bullying well before that topic became buzzworthy.

Despite the cancellation, the producers will continue to champion the fight to put creative programming on local television that shines a light on the movers and shakers in Boston’s art’s scene. Until that day comes the show’s brilliance can found at quietd.com.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade became the latest arena to witness the march of equality, even if it was through the absence of MassEquality actually marching. The parade’s organizers, the Allied War Veteran’s Council, despite immense pressure from a multitude of political, social and corporate forces, refused to allow members to participate in this year’s celebration.

Unwilling to co-sign that degree of intolerance, Mayor Marty Walsh refused to march himself in protest. Walsh, the city’s first Irish-American mayor in 20 years reasoned: “So much of our Irish history has been shaped by the fight against oppression. As mayor of the city of Boston, I have to do my best to ensure that all Bostonians are free to participate fully in the civic life of our city.

Unfortunately, this year, the parties were not able to come to an understanding that would have made that possible.” Bravo Mr. Mayor.

Christopher J. Mahoney, longtime beloved resident of Boston, passed away suddenly on Sunday, January 19. Chris was born in Boston, and grew up in Quincy. Chris, a graduate of Emerson College, later returned to that university to teach journalism, became a reporter for the Quincy Sun and the Patriot Ledger, eventually moving to the position of editor.

Later his experience at the Boston Business Journal attracted the attention of the Baltimore Business Journal, which offered him the position of managing editor.

The Boston Globe reported: “While journalism was Chris’ vocation, music was his passion. He was a member of the Boston Gay Men’s Choir, sang in the choir of his church, the Old South Church of Boston, and participated in many theatre groups. ... He served at the Old South Church feeding the homeless and went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to build and repair homes with other members of his church.” A touching ceremony was held by Chris’ loved ones on Saturday, February 22 at Old South Church in Mary Norton Hall.

ESCAPE

to the great outdoors in North Central Massachusetts.

An easy hour’s drive from Boston brings you to another world, filled with lush forests, splashing waterfalls and crystal-clear lakes.

Bask in the peaceful quiet of treelined biking and hiking trails. Take in a panoramic view from the top of Wachusett Mountain. Enjoy fieldfresh produce at a family-run farm.

Follow a country road to adventure in Johnny Appleseed’s backyard.

Sylvain Bruni was recently named president of Boston Pride by the organizations Board of Directors. Bruni, a systems engineer at Aptima, Inc and graduate of M.I.T., has been involved with Boston Pride for a decade now, first in a volunteer capacity and eventually serving as a member of the Board since 2007. Eyeing the organization’s goal to grow and evolve Linda DeMarco, former President, remarked “I truly believe without a doubt that Sylvain has what it takes to move this organization forward.”

www.appleseed.org

SPOTLIGHT Community STORY Scott Kearnan

Voics Rising in concert

Community Cliffnotes Voices Rising Marriage equality in Massachusetts isn’t the only thing celebrating a 10-year anniversary in 2014. So is the women’s chorus Voices Rising, which happened to stage its first group performance at a marriage rally in 2004. Since that grand coming-out, the chorus has grown and flourished into an important institution that only gets stronger with time. Here’s the word on Voices Rising.

WHAT IS VOICES RISING? Voices Rising is a women’s chorus founded upon feminist principles of activism and inclusivity. Its members primarily (though not exclusively) identify as LGBT, and the chorus produces at least four of its own concerts, each with a unified theme that showcases the work of women composers.

The group also brings its voice out into the greater community, taking part in Boston Pride events, the Dyke March, and social justice outreach initiatives.

HOW DID IT START? Today, they command a stage. But Voices Rising was quietly born in a living room, conceptualized by a small group of women who were passionate about music— and about building a stronger sense of

community. “Voices Rising played a key role in my figuring out what it meant to be a part of the LGBT community,” says founding member Carrie Braverman, who appreciated the “cross-generational contact” with older women that it allowed when she was a newly out twenty-something. Braverman, also a former president for the group, says that Voices Rising was intended to be a space where women could connect across lines of age, sexual orientation and gender identity, while still offering the local lesbian community a unique space for artistic freedom. Its 2004 founding occurred against the backdrop of a contentious political era when equal marriage was on the brink of becoming a reality, and Voices Rising also offered a forum for diverse women to have conversations—still ongoing, by the way— about different social issues that affect the community. “People feel quite differently about issues like marriage, and how much emphasis should be placed on it,” offers Braverman. “It’s great to be able to have these dialogues and sometimes address these issues through music.”

And to make that music, Voices Rising tapped Leora Zimmer to be its founding artistic director. Zimmer, a Montreal native, had a wide breadth of experience in playing, studying, and teaching music. She had

also already led several women’s choruses by the time she was approached by Voices Rising, including Another Octave, for which she was an assistant artistic director while earning two master’s degrees at Yale—and coming into her own as an out gay woman.

“It was a very nurturing, supportive environment for me,” recalls Zimmer of that chorus experience. “It was a very meaningful time when I felt that I was able to blossom into my own self as both a musician and a lesbian.”

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? That opportunity Zimmer describes—to grow, flourish, and deepen one’s connection to a community—is a major reason that many members seek out a women’s chorus like Voices Rising. “You’re individuals creating something together. In order to do that honestly and openly, you have to expose a certain vulnerability that requires feeling a sense of connection and safety,” explains Zimmer. “A lot of people come into the group already fully integrated into their identity. Others come into the group not fully comfortable, or still struggling with certain aspects, and organizations like this really nurture their individual growth.”

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[FROM 22] Groups like Voices Rising can also build bridges with the larger community by helping members comfortably share an important part of their identity with friends, family and neighbors. “It allows others to encounter us not foremost as queer-identified people, but as singers,” says Susan Clinkenbeard, a member of Voices Rising’s leadership team. “A person who is just coming out or trying to introduce her partner to her family, she isn’t going to ask them to do something heavy. Instead of asking them to come to a Pride parade, she’s saying, ‘Here’s my chorus. Come hear us sing.’ It can be a welcoming way to include straight people in the LGBT experience.”

WHAT HAS IT DONE? The list of accomplishments is long. Since its 2004 founding, Voices Rising has performed with the 6000-singer strong GALA (Gay and Lesbian Association of ) Choruses festival, among other groups, recorded two albums, and produced numerous fundraisers benefiting everything from tsunami relief to breast cancer research. (That’s all in addition to its standard full-length concerts.) The chorus has even launched creative initiatives like serenading “Singing Valentines” quarters and Mother’s Day

singing telegrams (Mom-o-grams). But perhaps Voices Rising’s greatest musical accomplishment goes beyond its strongerthan-ever technical skill or swelling membership. (There are now 35 singers.)

By highlighting work that is written by and for women, the group literally gives voice to talents that have historically struggled to be heard. And the concert themes, which have range from “Now We Become Ourselves,” a meditation on beauty and self-image, to “In Her Own Words,” a celebration of female poets, often connect deeply with women’s issues.

“Any woman-only space is somewhat transformative,” adds Braverman. “And music, like any art, has power in and of itself to transform communities and engage people in a way that words alone can not.”

WHAT’S IT WORKING ON NOW? Further expanding membership is a priority, says Clinkenbeard, adding that Voices Rising has a “50 by 2015” goal in place to build its roster. A larger group would allow the chorus to get even more involved in community outreach and service initiatives, adds Zimmer, who also hopes that the ability to commission original music

might soon be in the cards. But right now, much of the focus is on planning Voices Rising’s 10th anniversary concert for June.

The performance will revisit some of the most memorable selections from the 300 songs that the group has performed since its inception; that will likely include elements of “Where I Live (A Breast Cancer Oratorio)” that was first performed in 2005 and holds a particularly special place in the hearts of members. Joining the current Voices Rising roster for the anniversary show will be a number of old friends. Zimmer has invited all past members to return for a sing-along element, but about six “comeback kids” who dedicated rehearsal time will play a larger role by joining the group onstage for few selections. One has traveled to practice all the way from Syracuse, New York, a testament to the lasting sense of community that the chorus provides. “Of course, my hope is that some of them will remember how much they love this, and decide to stay,” laughs Zimmer.

“That might be my ulterior motive.”

Secret’s out, and proud. [x] Voices Rising

Voicesrising.org facebook.com/VoicesRisingChorus 617-396-7086

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FEATURE Politics STORY Tony Giampetruzzi

Nation’s First Out State Attorney General?

If Maura Healey has her way, Massachusetts will once again be a pioneer for LGBTs If Maura Healey wins her race, she will be the first openly gay state Attorney General in the country. And she thinks that’s significant.

“We’ve made a lot of progress and that’s reflected in the fact that someone like me can seek this particular office; it’s a statement about equality and fairness,”

boston symphony orchestra

she says. “Remember, it wasn’t too long ago that LGBT people were afraid of law enforcement and the ways laws were used against them.”

Healey says her election would be a testament to the efforts of so many who have gone before her. Some would contend that it might be the natural progression for someone who has spent the majority of her professional career ensuring that Massachusetts law is enforced to protect the LGBT community.

Healey served for eight years in the Litigation Department at WilmerHale LLP, where she and colleagues challenged the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. It was

summer 2014 june 27 – august 31 Enjoy classical, jazz, and popular music, a wine and food festival, and more, at the idyllic summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights include:

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also there that her long association with same-sex marriage efforts began when she and others served as pro bono counsel to a group of conflict of laws professors and prepared and filed an amicus brief in the court case challenging the Massachusetts 1913 law that then-Massachuestts Governor Romney had used to ban out-of-state same-sex couples from coming to Massachusetts to marry following the Supreme Judicial Court’s 2003 Goodridge decision.

Shortly after joining the Attorney General’s office in 2007 as Chief of the Civil Rights Division, she was lead counsel in Massachusetts v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, the state’s 2009 challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. She oversaw the legal strategy and briefing in that case and successfully argued and won the case in federal district court and at the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. This was the first successful challenge to DOMA in the country.

Healey also oversaw and was lead counsel in the amicus brief filed by Massachusetts and 14 other states in U.S. v. Windsor

“ Believe it or not, and despite all the progress we’ve made, there is still discrimination in Massachusetts, and the job of the AG is to make sure we take on that discrimination. ” Mauara Healey in the United States Supreme Court. And, she was lead counsel on the state of Massachusetts’ amicus briefs filed in the challenge to California’s Proposition 8, both in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.

In addition to her work on marriage, Healey handled prosecutions to obtain

civil rights injunctions against persons who committed hate crimes against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity; trained police officers and law enforcement on working with LGBT persons who were victims of crimes or civil rights violations; supported state anti-bullying initiatives; and been an advocate to end discrimination against transgender people.

Still, for all the LGBT wins that can be attributed to, or that were supported by Healey, she cautions: “Believe it or not, and despite all the progress we’ve made, there is still discrimination in Massachusetts, and the job of the AG is to make sure we take on that discrimination by enforcing laws particularly in housing, employment, education and health care,” says Healey.

“As the LGBT population ages, we need to make sure they are protected when they go into nursing facilities and that they get the type of health care coverage they are entitled to.”

While Healey has been strong and consistent on issues of particular importance

[CONTINUES 29]

Karen Y. VP & Chief Inclusion Officer

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MAY|JUN 2014 | 27

FEATURE Politics STORY Tony Giampetruzzi

“ Love of country should be more important for our officials than love of party. ” Richard Tisei

First Out Gay Republican in the U.S. House?

Richard Tisei PHOTO Chuck Colbert

If candidate Richard Tisei wins, he would rather be known for solving the nation’s debt problem and creating jobs Richard Tisei believes that government should get off your back, out of your wallet and away from your bedroom. It’s a typical Republican mantra, unless you attribute it to this former Republican Massachusetts State Senator who is now running for Congress for the State’s Sixth District.

He’s openly gay and married. But, if elected, he says, don’t expect him to be the “gay Congressman” (even though he will be the first openly gay Republican elected to the U.S. House).

“If that’s what people are expecting, they probably will be disappointed because I’m going to D.C. to help solve problems that are facing the country like our seventeen trillion dollar debt, an economy that’s

28 | BOSTON SPIRIT

not creating jobs, and a broken Medicare system,” he says.

“That said, when issues do come up regarding civil rights and equality, I will stand up and play a significant role in saying that the Republican party should be the one that promotes freedom and fairness, because that’s what the party was founded on.”

It’s likely not an empty promise. On the campaign trail he has vilified not only his democratic opponent, nine-term incumbent John Tierney (who defeated Tisei in 2012 by a razor thin margin), but the entire Republican party, as well.

According to The Washington Post, Tisei recently gave a speech at the Northeast

Republican Leadership Conference in Nashua, N.H., in which he said young voters and proponents of smaller government should support Republicans.

“But they’re not. And do you know why?

It’s because we’ll never be a 21st Century party if our platform is stuck in the 19th Century,” he said.

Tisei touts a voting record that reinforces his claim that he’s not a party voter and that he doesn’t toe the party line. He says he only voted with Governor Mitt Romney 54% of the time when the two served simultaneously.

Now 51, he was the youngest Republican elected to the Massachusetts General Court when he was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1984. He spent six years in the House before he was elected to the State Senate, was elected Assistant Minority Leader in 1997 and Senate Minority Leader in January 2007. His last Senate term ended in January 2011.

He is best described as a fiscal conservative and a libertarian on social issues. He was named Legislator of the Year by the Massachusetts Alliance for the Mentally Ill, enjoyed a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, was a strong supporter of same-sex marriage, and sponsored the 1993 Welfare Reform Law and the Whistleblower Protection Law, which was a landmark in safeguarding workers from retaliation by employers for reporting abuse or unsafe working conditions.

Most recently he boycotted the state Republican Convention on grounds that the platform does not support gay marriage, a woman’s right to choose, and other social issues.

“I don’t want to go and be seen in any way to be endorsing that,” Tisei told The Boston Globe. “I don’t really feel comfortable being at a convention where the platform takes the party backward, rather than forward, as far as appealing to a large group of Massachusetts voters.”

He says that his voting record always reflected the will of his district and that he wants to bring that same sensibility to (a very broken) Washington.

“I think the country is at a really important juncture right now and that the decisions that are made over the next couple years will pretty much determine what type of country we’ll be for decades to come,” he says. “I don’t think there’s been another time, at least in my lifetime, when we’ve faced such enormous challenges. There is growing number of people who are losing faith in our system and, worse, in the American Dream.”

He says that neither political party is offering the solution

people want. “Love of country should be more important for our officials than love of party,” he says.

His district may agree: it’s fiercely independent with 58% of voters unaffiliated with either party. Tisei defeated his democratic opponents for state office 11 times before his unsuccessful bid for Lieutenant Governor in 2010.

That may bode well for Tisei who came very close to beating Tierney in the last election.

As for support from the gay community, he understands old habits die hard.

“Look, in Massachusetts it’s a lot easier to be gay than it is to be a Republican,” he says. “And, I sometimes think it’s hard for gay voters to see the forest through the trees. I think most voters want their leaders to approach issues from a non-ideological standpoint, and I can figure out what needs to be done and put a plan together to reach consensus.”

Tisei lives with his husband Bernie Starr in Wakefield. [x]

WE EMPOWER THE WHOLE PERSON.

[HEALEY FROM 27] to the LGBT community, her other positions are also reflective of her commitment to protecting people: she recently announced a three-point plan to curb gun violence; she is a strong advocate for consumer rights and takes a strong stand against predatory lending; and she is a champion of women’s issues including reproductive rights and access to women’s health centers.

She also points to advocacy around HIV/AIDS issues and bullying and cyber bullying as key issues of focus.

In these issues and others, Healey is very interested in maintaining the momentum of the Massachusetts AG’s office as leading the nation in the area of civil rights.

Anke Schafer, Occupational Therapist, Staff Educator

“Massachusetts in my point of view, has an AGs office that is really forward looking, and I’m really proud of our record.

We’ve seen nationwide that not every AG office is like Massachusetts,” she says. “I understand the importance of having a state’s Chief Law Officer be the one to stand up for equality, fairness and justice and try, in ways large and small, to make a difference for people— not just in the LGBT community, but for everyone in the broader community … people who are vulnerable and need a voice—children, the elderly, seniors, consumers. That’s why we are there, to advocate for the people and make sure that we enforce laws that are fair and just.” [x]

PRIDE = STRENGTH. Anke considers it a privilege to enter a patient’s home, establishing a bond of trust with those for whom she cares. She understands it may be hard for patients to let in an unknown caregiver.

That’s why, as a staff educator, she ensures our employees are culturally competent, valuing each patient’s pride in being who they are. Our staff delivers the same exceptional care to everyone.

At Partners HealthCare at Home and Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, we educate caregivers to treat all of our patients with dignity and respect.

For us, inclusion is more than a catch phrase...it’s what makes us all thrive together.

Learn more about empowering careers at: partnersathome.org or spauldingrehab.org.

EOE, M/F/D/V

1

SEASONAL Marriage STORY Scott Kearnan PHOTOS Joel Benjamin

Years On The Goodridges famously split, but the other plaintiff couples remain together; here’s how happily ever after turns out a decade later On May 17, 2004, history was made. Massachusetts became the first state in the country to honor legal same-sex marriages. And when one considers the ripple effect that had—catalyzing greater acceptance that permeated everything from pop culture to politics—it is no exaggeration to say that for gay men and women, America changed forever.

And it happened because of “Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health,” the landmark court case argued by GLAD’s Mary Bonauto. Together, seven couples shared their lives with the world in the hopes that they might change it. And a decade later, we revisited each of them to reflect on the case, its impact, how it changed their lives.

30 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Gloria and Linda Bailey-Davies Linda and Gloria had two weddings. The first was in May 2004, before the cameras of the national press, as one of the seven “Goodridge” couples who ushered equal marriage to Massachusetts. The second ceremony was in July, reserved for an intimate group of family and friends.

But a decade later, they remain reminded constantly of the countless others out there—many of them perfect strangers—who continue to celebrate their union. “We still get cards and letters,” says Gloria. “Even invitations to the weddings of people we don’t even know!”

When they involved themselves in the Goodridge case, it was to fight for their rights. Linda and Gloria met in 1970.

They had spent four decades dodging the blows of discrimination: always forced to explain (or not) their relationship, and frequently worrying what would happen to the other in the case of illness or emergency. And they sometimes had to battle the sense of self-doubt that emerges in a world that constantly assaults your identity. “I didn’t want to do it. I thought I was going to be sick,” recalls Linda of the morning in 2001 that they had to go to the Orleans town hall to request a marriage license. It was a necessary evil; they had to be denied a license in order to have a lawsuit. “I was scared to death,” she admits. “It was my own internalized homophobia.”

And there was already enough of that in the outside world. Gloria remembers preparing to stand outside a Catholic diocese that was having a “teach-in” to rally parishioners against gay marriage. Linda and Gloria were to be there outside, to put a human face to the issue.

“I just broke down the night before,” says Gloria. “I didn’t know if I could go, and feel in the deepest part of my being that all these religious people were against me and against our love for one another.

Something about that was a million times more painful than when all the politicians would speak.”

But they did go, and they weren’t alone.

Members of their Unitarian Universalist Congregation joined them to show support, and to outweigh with love all car horns and middle fingers flung their way.

“The anti-gay demonstrations were very real and very painful, but they were about

five percent of what we experienced,” says Gloria now. “The other 95 percent was love and support. That made enduring the slings and arrows possible.”

They continue to feel that support today.

It comes through the cards and invitations mailed to their home in Orleans—where Linda runs Rainbow Coaching, a personal and relationship coaching service. It comes through the hugs they receive on the street when someone recognizes them from an old TV interview, and thanks them for making their wedding possible.

And it comes through the tangible progress of equal marriage, which has gone from one state’s ambitious goal to the reality of life in 17. “It makes me want to cry, to think how fast things are changing and how many people’s lives have been transformed,” says Gloria.

But more than 40 years after they first fell in love, their greatest source of support remains the same: each other. “We don’t just love each other, we like each other,” says Linda. “I married my best friend.”

MAY|JUN 2014 | 31

Hillary and Julie Goodridge As the lead plaintiffs in Goodridge v.

Dept. of Public Health, Hillary and Julie became the unified face and voice of thousands of gay couples across the country.

And by now, most people know their story: how Hillary had to fight to be by the side of Julie and their newborn daughter, Annie, after a precarious birth. How they eventually filed suit for the right to marry, to protect the relationship and family they had built over 15 years. And how, alongside six other couples, their personal stories launched a political movement that not only established equal marriage in Massachusetts, but also spurred a culture change that paid dividends in additional victories across the country. Together, they made history.

Hillary and Julie Goodridge with their daughter Annie

Several years later they divorced, and weathered another round of public scrutiny. They haven’t discussed that as much.

But in reflecting on the legacy of the their case, its ups and downs, it becomes clear that their marriage ended the same way it began: with love.

“I think it’s important to talk about the divorce,” says Julie, sitting in the Jamaica Plain office where she runs NorthStar Asset Management, a wealth management firm that helps clients identify socially and politically responsible investments.

She and Hillary initially separated in 2006. And though Julie is known for a fairly unflappable public demeanor (sparring with right-wing pundits builds a pretty thick skin), she becomes emotional as she broaches the topic of their divorce, finalized in 2009.

“The process of being married felt extraordinary to me. It was profound.

Going through the divorce was equally profound,” she explains. She takes a moment to collect herself. “Because in that process, if you allow yourself to be truly present, you can experience all the good reasons that you married that person. You can go through it in an incredibly respectful and healing way.”

“Hillary and I pulled that off,” she says.

“I’m proud of that.”

And they should be. As the case’s most public faces, Hillary and Julie were tasked, fairly or not, with representing an entire community on a national stage. To be at the center of history was an “amazing privilege,” says Hillary. But it was also daunting. Whether they were speaking at the State House or appearing on TV news programs, everything, from their words to their wardrobe, was placed under a microscope and subject to critique—including by the LGBT community.

Naturally, the experience strained their relationship, admits Julie. “I think we both felt we needed to be as perfect as we could be,” she says. “Even given everything we had already been through together, the kind of scrutiny that we were under created a level of stress for our family I could not possibly have imagined.”

Getting married in front of the world wasn’t easy. But getting divorced in front of it was even harder. “The emotions are already confusing,” says Hillary. “And it’s coupled with this feeling that you’ve let everyone down.”

Some even felt emboldened to tell them as much. Julie bristles when she recalls one lengthy email she received, from a “close friend and public figure,” chastising her in the wake of the separation. “It was all about how I had a responsibility to tell the community first about any issues we were having,” she recounts. “It was unbelievable. This was a personal decision.”

And it was one that, as always, they undertook together. It also underscored for them the value of marriage and the supportive foundation it offers to families.

“What I learned is that this institution also guides you through dismantling a relationship,” says Hillary. “That’s a really important, good thing when you’re at your most vulnerable.”

And it’s why now they remain such close friends. They still talk regularly. When the Supreme Court ruled in the Windsor case last June, striking down a key provision

of DOMA, Hillary’s first call was to Julie.

They co-parent their daughter Annie, now 18. Hillary, who continues to work as director of the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program, also raises a 12-year old stepdaughter with her partner. And they share a rare, special connection that will never go away. Julie laughs at a recent day spent taking Annie on college tours, when both moms coincidentally showed up in identical outfits. (“Annie was horrified,”

she chuckles.) They still share an amazing bond, if not a marriage.

Most importantly, they share a legacy.

“It’s jaw-dropping,” says Hillary, reflecting on the progress that equal marriage has made since their case. “And it’s also affirming. “Because at the time, when the idea of same-sex marriage was first being brought up in a really serious way, the reaction was often, ‘are you kidding?’”

“I feel proud of it,” says Julie of the impact of the Goodridge case. “We still have a long way to go. But I think marriage acted as a catalyst for a lot of acceptance among all consonants of the L, G, B and T.” There’s work to do with regard to every letter, she adds. But thanks to “Goodridge,” tides have turned.

“When you see a big outpouring of love, you can’t help but be swept away.”

THE BCAE LOOKS BACK ON MARRIAGE

Moderated by WGBH personality Jared Bowen, the discussion will include plaintiffs Hillary Goodridge, Julie Goodridge, Rob Compton and David Wilson, as well as former Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice John M. Equality/10th Anniversary Portraits” by Joel On Friday, May 16, the BCAE will MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Greaney. Registration for the forum is $10 ($8 Benjamin, which features recent portraits of host “Sip the Rainbow,” a cocktail members) at bcae.org. There you can also find the brave plaintiff couples, including much of reception featuring drinks inspired information on additional LGBT-related courses his work in this issue of Spirit. Tickets for the by the colors of the Pride flag. The offered throughout May and June, including reception are $20 at the door; $15 in advance reception (6-8 p.m.) coincides “How to Throw a Gay Wedding,” “Whether to at bcae.org. The exhibitions will remain on with the opening of two new photo exhibiWed: A Legal & Tax Guide for Gay and Lesbian tions. There is “The Hard-Won Fight: America’s display through June 30.

Couples,” “Books You Should Know: LGBT First Legal Same Sex Marriages,” by Marilyn In addition, the BCAE will host a JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Classics,” and “Out Loud: Reading Gay Plays.”

Humphries and Susan Symonds, which docuspecial panel on Tuesday, May 20 ments the dramatic fight for equality during from 6:30-8 p.m., “A Public Conver2003 and 2004. And there is “Marriage sation: 10 Years of Gay Marriage.”

To commemorate 10 years of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the Boston Center of Adult Education (BCAE) is taking a unique look back— and ahead—with a series of special programs.

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2

5 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2

1930–1965 Through July 6, 2014 Explore living and playing, California style!

Exhibition organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Supported by the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum.

Media Partner: WGBH

Mary Ann DeWeese, Woman’s swimsuit, 1961. LACMA, Gift of Mary Ann DeWeese, DeWeese Designs. The Warnaco Group Inc. Photo © 2011 Museum Associates/LACMA. Greg Noll, Surfboard, c. 1960. LACMA, Gift of Matt Jacobson, M.2011.132. Photo © 2011 Museum Associates/LACMA. Raymond Loewy, Studebaker Avanti, 1964. Private Collection of Richard Vaux. Photo by Walter Silver/PEM.

161 Essex Street | Salem, MA | 978-745-9500 | pem.org

David Wilson and Robert Compton As plaintiffs in the Goodridge case, David Wilson and Rob Compton started a conversation about marriage with America. But a decade later, their relationship is even stronger because of the conversation they started with one another.

“Because of the case, we wind up having ongoing conversations about issues that other couples don’t necessarily have,” says David. “Any time we’re asked to do an

interview or sit on a panel, it’s an opportunity for reflection about what we believe in, our commitment to each other, and what marriage means. It’s a learning experience that has only deepened and strengthened our relationship.”

That relationship started nearly 20 years ago when the men, who had both previously been married to women, met at a support group for gay dads. They fell in love and had a commitment ceremony in 2000, but a spate of medical problems further underscored the frustrations they would

experience without the formal protections they had in their first marriages. Enter: Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, a chance to help change the world.

“A lot of people would have been happy to step into that role, and we are grateful to have made that contribution,” says Rob of the experience. That’s not to say the contribution came easy. During the case, conversations about equal marriage weren’t easy to have. Backlash even came from camps that should have been supportive; Rob remembers speaking to (ostensibly pro-equality) college groups pontificating that an anti-gay backlash would jeopardize progress on other fronts, from adoption rights to anti-bullying initiatives.

“When they were finished I asked them, ‘How many of you want us to continue?” recalls Rob of one crowd. “Everyone raised their hand.” Case closed.

Other contingencies seemed harder to crack. “When we started talking about marriage, the communities of color were not very supportive,” says David. And ten years later, he says, initiatives supporting particularly marginalized groups, like transgender youth of color, lag far behind the progress of the overall marriage movement. That’s an issue Wilson devotes much of his work to today, as a diversity consultant and board member of GLAD. (He’s also sat on the board of the HRC.) Overall, though, the couple is heartened by the way that the conversation Goodridge started has changed the discourse of a country. Sure, it has allowed for important legal protections. But a new world of out married couples has helped many gay people feel better integrated to the greater social fabric, with profound impacts from the home to the workplace. “I remember gay friends with great experience and education who felt as if they had a glass ceiling above them. They didn’t aspire to get to the top,” says Rob, who was once fired from his job as a dentist for being gay—and is now the executive director of the DentaQuest Institute, a national industry organization.

“Today they recognize that they can reach for the stars.”

And David and Rob, now grandparents and living in Provincetown, continue to reach for each other. “Most people get married, go on with their lives, and never question why they’re together and what marriage means to them,” says David. But because of their role in history, their marriage has a meaning they could never forget.

Michael Horgan and Edward Balmelli In the ten years since Massachusetts staked its first-in-the-nation claim, 17 other states (plus the District of Columbia) have legalized same-sex marriage.

Some victories came through the legislature, others through the courts, and some via popular vote. But in the fight for equal rights, one common denominator has existed across state lines: an approach that Mike Horgan and Ed Balmelli believe is a result of the Goodridge legacy.

“It put a human face to the issue,” says Mike of the way GLAD approached the case. “It’s easy to hate gay marriage in the abstract. It’s a lot harder to hate Ed and Mike.”

Ed and Mike have loved each other since 1994. In 2000 they received a civil union in Vermont, but soon involved themselves as plaintiffs in the Goodridge case, prompted in part by the sad and horrifying experience of a friend who wasn’t even allowed to authorize a coroner to act when his longtime partner died in their home.

Suddenly, a civil union and precautionary paperwork didn’t seem like enough.

“How is there such a thing as a halfway point in equality?” muses Mike. “Back then Massachusetts was further ahead than the rest of the country. So maybe there would be some setbacks. Maybe it would be three steps forward and one step back. But it was time to really go for marriage. Half measures and incremental steps wouldn’t have worked here.”

They didn’t have to. By sharing their story and humanizing their struggles, they helped make history—and offered a template for future approaches. “We were seven couples from all different demographics, telling our stories over and over again,” says Ed. “People got to see gay men and women who were just like their brothers, sisters and neighbors. They didn’t just see us as gay people, they saw us as human beings.”

But the rest of country is still a patchwork of inequality, a reality that the couple has had to confront in the years since.

About a year ago, Ed, who works as an information technology professional, saw his job moved to an office in Texas. “My VP asked me if I would consider going to Texas,” says Ed, who declined. “He asked me why, and I said, ‘Because if I went to Texas, I wouldn’t be married anymore.’”

At least now, thanks to the progress that has been made, it was a seamless process to go on Mike’s benefits while he works as a contractor. And one day, the couple knows, equal marriage won’t make a state exceptional: it will be the law of the land.

“My niece is in law school, and they were studying the Goodridge case in her constitutional law class,” says Ed proudly.

Though for a couple that made history by sharing a glimpse of their life, sometimes the most telling signs of progress

aren’t found in legal case studies, but in small, personal moments. “Eight years ago, a plumber coming to the house would ask, ‘Who’s going to be there?’ I’d say my husband, and wait for a reaction,” says Ed. “Now everyone just says, ‘Oh, what’s his name? How long have you been together?’”

For the record, they’re Ed and Mike.

They’ve been together twenty years. And you still can’t help but love them.

Maureen Brodoff and Ellen Wade Few people can say they truly made history. Maureen Brodoff and Ellen Wade can say they did it twice.

Before becoming plaintiffs in the Goodridge case, Maureen and Ellen were at the center of another landmark legal ruling: this one about gay adoption rights.

In GLAD’s 1993 case Adoption of Susan, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the unmarried partner (Ellen) of a child’s biological parent

Maureen Brodoff and Ellen Wade and their daughter Kate

(Maureen) could adopt the child and become a second legal parent without the biological partner giving up any rights.

Together with a companion case, Adoption of Tammy, it became a milestone in adoption law for protecting the rights of gay parents and their families.

Fast-forward a decade to Goodridge, and the couple was at the center of another political maelstrom. This time their daughter Kate, no longer hidden behind the court-assigned name of “Susan” that was designed to protect her privacy, was

right there, speaking publicly on behalf of her moms at State House rallies. And it was clear to the couple that as their daughter had grown, so had an entire sea change of attitudes. “There’s a completely different generation that sees being gay as a non-issue,” says Ellen. “During the case we spoke to high school classes, including some at Kate’s school. These were teenagers two or three years away from voting, and when you’d ask them about their attitudes toward gay people, they’d say ‘Of course they should be able to get married!’”

Today those teenagers can vote—which explains why, according to one Washington Post/ABC News poll released in March, about 75 percent of Americans under age 30 support same-sex marriage.

And as they reflect back on their experiences during the Goodridge case, Maureen and Ellen say it’s not the anti-gay venom they remember most, but the overwhelming support they received.

“We could never have predicted how it would go. We knew it might be hard and stressful, but mostly it was an exciting privilege,” says Maureen, She adds that Goodridge also helped an important group of people to have their own coming-out: allies. “There were people who knew I was a lesbian but were never sure if they should acknowledge it. Suddenly, because of the case, they had the ability to come out and say in their own words: ‘I heard what you’re doing, it’s wonderful and I’m rooting for you.’ Those were the most amazing moments.”

Ten years later, some things haven’t changed: Ellen still has her own Brookline law firm, Wade Horowitz LaPointe, which offers especial expertise in GLBT estate planning. Maureen still works with the National Fire Protection Association, as vice president and general counsel. Kate, now 25, still supports the community; she works in development at Fenway Health.

And two landmark legal cases later, they realize, even once-dramatic changes are now simply the status quo. “It’s amazing how things have changed so much, so fast,” says Ellen. “As each additional state recognizes same-sex marriage, it’s almost become ho-hum!” And what could be more exciting than that?

Gary Chalmers and Richard Linnell Gary Chalmers is a teacher. He’s used to explaining things to children. But the hardest lesson he and his husband Richard Linnell ever had to deliver was to their daughter, Paige. “She was about eight years old, and she was talking to my nephews,” recalls Gary. “She referred to us as married, and the nephews were saying, ‘Two boys can’t get married!’ She was adamant that we must be, because we were her parents.”

Afterwards, Paige’s dads had to tell her that it was true: that they weren’t married.

They weren’t allowed to be.

“That was the turning point. We had to do something.” And they did. The couple joined the plaintiffs of the landmark Goodridge case, and they soon discovered that they would be responsible for teaching many others about their lives and experiences. A decade later, Gary isn’t surprised by the rapid shift toward support for gay marriage since Goodridge, and he believes much of that evolution is owed to the education the case offered about the reality of discrimination. “We had very supportive friends for years who had never had any idea that certain rights weren’t afforded to us,” says Gary. “When we’d explain things, like the fact that we could be denied seeing each other in a hospital, they’d become outraged.”

“It’s just something most people didn’t have to think about,” says Gary. “They were used to our family being just like theirs. Those realities had never entered their minds, and when they did, they were blown away.”

Of course, teaching the world about the realities of the gay community wasn’t always easy. Whether the couple was reading anti-gay newspaper op-eds or watching right-wing pundits on TV, it could be hard to “maintain your composure when people were spewing inaccurate information,” says Gary. But as time went on, he saw tides turn—and realized there were many allies out there who were willing to school the opposition. He remembers when a vicious editorial ran in the local paper: clearly incensed by the marriage case, its writer suggested that Gary was “promoting homosexuality” to his children and “exposing them to AIDS.” (For many years, some students had

joined him in an annual fundraising walk.)

“I knew one of the reporters and called her up,” remembers Gary. “I asked, ‘How do I submit a rebuttal?’”

“She said, ‘You don’t have to.’” Several former students had already written the paper with responses in his defense.

Just by knowing him, they had learned much more than he realized. And as the Goodridge case opened the door for equal marriage fights around the country, many more out couples have given the nongay world an education. Now some polls show as many as 59 percent of Americans

Gary Chalmers and Richard Linnell with their daughter Paige

support same-sex marriage; in 2004, about 59 percent opposed it.

Today Gary is still a teacher, Richard still works as a nurse, and their daughter, armed with what Gary calls a “passion for social justice,” is off to college. They are still just like every other family. And now they don’t have to explain that to anyone.

“My sister-in-law always says that she can’t wait until her grandchildren read about our case in a history book,” says Gary proudly. It’s someone else’s turn to teach that lesson.

Heidi and Gina Nortonsmith Heidi and Gina never intended to be heroes. But today, that’s how many people treat them.

“People are so effusive in their thanks.

They give us hugs, sometimes there are tears,” says Heidi of the reaction that the Northampton couple receives when people discover that they were among the Goodridge plaintiffs. “That reaction didn’t always feel commensurate to what we did. Someone even once said to us, ‘you’re heroes! You’re our Rosa Parks.’”

That remark made Heidi see their story in a new light. The circumstances and civil rights battles were different, of course. But Heidi says that just as Parks was among those who gave organizations like the NAACP the incidents it needed to challenge legal segregation, she and Gina were among those couples GLAD selected to challenge marriage inequality.

“We’re the people who were picked to play a particular, small role in a bigger issue,” says Heidi. Today that’s a distinction the couple wears with pride.

“After May 2004, people would come up to us at the grocery store or at the playground. They would tell us the stories of their weddings and how their marriage had changed their family’s attitude,” says Gina. “It was overwhelming.”

But there have been reminders of how much work there is left to do. Last year, when the Supreme Court ruled in the Windsor case and struck down Section 3 of DOMA, the couple was jubilant. But the experience was also bittersweet for Heidi. She was away from home, studying at an annual Scottish arts program hosted on the campus of Oberlin College.

The atmosphere, she says, was distinctly Midwest: as in, very straight. “If I had been at home in Northampton, it would have been a nonstop celebration,” says Heidi.

“Instead I was back at my alma mater, 30 years later, feeling like on one hand we’ve come so far—and on the other, here I am having some of the same old experiences.

Everyone was talking about their kids and families, and when I mentioned mine, my partner in the program—someone I had been studying with, eating with, and getting to know for 45 days—heard what I said, turned on his heels and walked away.” Goodridge changed the fight for marriage, but as long as a patchwork of

equality exists across the country, she realizes there are still places where she and Gina will be considered second-class citizens.

Of course, that’s not the case everywhere.

Today Gina is a public school teacher, and Heidi the executive director of Northampton Survival Center, a nonprofit that helps low-income families. They’re seemingly ordinary moms. But to many people,

Heidi and Gina Nortonsmith and their sons Avery and Quinn

they will always be considered heroes.

“I remember when we gave a speech to a some high school LGBT groups,” says Heidi. “Afterwards a few of them came up to us and said, ‘you guys saved our lives.’”

“In joining the lawsuit we wanted to be role models to our children,” she adds.

“We wanted to be people who stood up for what is right.” Mission: accomplished. [x]

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FEATURE Justice STORY Fred Kuhr PHOTOS Courtesy Andy Inkster

Transgender Man Denied Fertility Services in Massachusetts Baystate Health embroiled in an official anti-discrimination suit Andy Inkster is an expert on issues related to LGBT parenting, both professionally and academically. He is the health promoter for the LGBTQ Parenting Network at the Sherbourne Health Centre in Toronto. He studied sociology as a graduate student at York University concentrating on, among other things, “the construction and representation of transmasculinity within sociology.” He then chose to pursue his PhD in sociology at UMass Amherst.

Given all that, Springfield, Massachuessts-based Baystate Health had no idea who they were dealing with when it denied him access to fertility services allegedly because he is a transgender man.

Inkster was not about to let Baystate get away with what he saw as an injustice against the transgender community, particularly since it relates to health care.

His case is now before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD). He filed his complaint in 2010, but his first face-to-face meeting with Baystate under the auspices of MCAD took place only recently, on March 31. The details of that meeting are confidential, and no follow up meeting has been set.

Ironically, Inkster chose to relocate to western Massachusetts from Toronto in 2007 because of the area’s progressive and LGBT-friendly reputation. “It’s a lovely place with lovely queer families driving their Subarus,” Inkster says with a smile, sitting in his Toronto office under posters with slogans such as “Who’s in your

40 | BOSTON SPIRIT

family tree?” and “Celebrating all fabulous fathers.”

That was also the year that Inkster, after much thought and deliberation, decided to get pregnant. Although he is transgender, he still is physiologically able to conceive and bear a child.

In 2009, he had his first appointment with Baystate’s fertility clinic seeking in vitro fertilization (IVF).

As Inkster tells it, the trouble started when the first doctor he met with focused on his appearance rather than his parenting skills. “You seem very masculinized to have a baby,” the doctor allegedly told Inkster.

He did, however, begin the treatment protocol, but after getting the runaround from one of the nurses, he was told he would not be treated unless the “guidelines committee” determined that treatment was appropriate.

Inkster then met with a social worker at the facility, who focused on Inkster’s sexuality. According to a letter Inkster wrote to Baystate, the social worker “insisted on probing into my childhood experiences of gender, asking questions such as ‘How old were you when you started dressing like a man?’ and ‘What was your old name?’

She made it clear to me that she found my answers to her questions about my childhood dissatisfying.” The social worker “was also very insistent on me framing my sexuality in a way that she could understand, and repeatedly insinuated that I am confused about my sexuality.”

The clinic also wanted Inkster to meet with a therapist for an assessment, a move that didn’t seem like a routine request to Inkster. So he asked for the policy regarding this, but there was no written policy. “I know that anytime a hospital does something, they have a policy,” said Inkster.

Andy Inkster and his Daughter Elise

[The social worker] “was also very insistent on me framing my sexuality in a way that she could understand, and repeatedly insinuated that I am confused about my sexuality.”

Andy Inkster

Baystate does have a Patients Rights policy that states patients have the right to “access treatment or accommodations that are available or medically indicated, regardless of race, creed, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sources of payment for care.” In fact, the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign named Baystate a “Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality” in 2013 due, in part, to its inclusive policy.”

However, Inkster was refused care at Baystate, in part because the facility argued it did not have the expertise to treat him. He was also told that he was a man seeking treatment that is typically meant for women.

Inkster subsequently shifted to seeking treatment at Boston IVF, where he found none of the resistance he attributes to Baystate. And in October 2010, baby Elise was born.

It was his daughter’s birth that convinced him to file the MCAD complaint since he still lived in western Massachusetts where all major healthcare institutions are associated with Baystate. “I feel a sense of responsibility,” said Inkster. “If anyone is going to fight this, I’m in a good position to do it. ... It’s one thing to fuck with me, but don’t fuck with my kid.”

When contacted by Boston Spirit, Baystate not only wanted to talk on the record, but was somewhat conciliatory.

“It’s a continuing journey for us working to become more compassionate and effective as both a healthcare provider and an employer,” said Andres Gonzalez, Baystate’s chief diversity and

“ We treat transgender patients with the same dignity and respect as any other patients. ... And it’s fair to say we take steps forward every year. ” Andres Gonzalez Baystate’s chief diversity and inclusion officer

inclusion officer, noting also that he could not comment specifically on the Inkster case.

“We don’t treat our transgender patient base any differently than any other patient base,” said Gonzalez. “We treat transgender patients with the same dignity and respect as any other patients. ... And it’s fair to say we take steps forward every year.”

“Gender identity or expression” was added to Baystate’s non-discrimination policy five years ago. “This is a journey for us, but look at all the things we’ve done and accomplished.” He pointed to an e-learning module that Baystate created and rolled out four years ago to train employees on LGBT issues, a first-ever transgender conference held at Baystate three years ago, and the Transgender Lives: The Intersection of Lives and Law conference held at the University of

Connecticut which has been sponsored by Baystate the last two years.

“Our partnerships, the inclusive workplace we have created, speaks for itself,” said Gonzalez.

Jennifer Levi, director of the Transgender Rights Project at Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), said that Baystate acknowledging that it is not perfect “is really important; it’s the first step in better healthcare for the transgender community.”

GLAD and Levi are not involved in the Inkster case, but Levi said she’s not surprised to hear that this happened to Inkster. “This is terrible and it’s wrong,” said Levi. “Of course, transgender men can be great parents. This is not a reason to deny anyone who has the ability and wants to become a parent.”

For Levi, the most important outcome is for all transgender people to have full access to the medical system. “There needs to be more education, more knowledge and more understanding. When people go for medical care, it can already be a traumatizing experience. Discrimination can exacerbate the experience.

Medical need, not identity, needs to be the focus.”

As part of any conclusion to his case, Inkster wants Baystate to commit to better staff training on such issues. He would like Baystate to employ a campaign like Be An Ally at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital (www.mountsinai.on.ca/about_us/humanrights/ally), an industry leader in non-discrimination and equitable healthcare.

Said Inkster, “I never want this to happen again to anyone else.” [x]

MAY|JUN 2014 | 41

SEASONAL People STORY Scott Kearnan PHOTOS Joel Benjamin (unless otherwise noted)

They’re here (in New England), they’re queer (well, most of them) and they’re doing amazing work on behalf of the LGBT community. They are mayors and senators, authors and executive directors.

Say hello to this year’s list of gays and allies who are pushing equality forward.

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Deb Silva Director, Equal Justice Coalition When other kids wanted to be movie stars and astronauts, Deb Silva had a more modest goal: to help people. She certainly has, whether as director of public policy at AIDS Action Committee or as legislative aide to former out state representative (and new AAC executive director) Carl Sciortino.

But Silva isn’t solely concerned with LGBTrelated issues. As director of the Equal Justice Coalition (EJC), this former attorney guides a coalition that lobbies to protect and increase state funding for civil legal aid. (Governor Patrick’s FY15 budget recommendation: $14 million. EJC’s need: $17 million.) Almost one million lowincome individuals in Massachusetts depend on that aid for access to fair representation around critical, sometimes life-or-death issues related to employment, disability, housing and more. In the justice system, money talks—but Silva walks the walk, all the way to Beacon Hill.

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[SPIRIT] HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO WORK IN LAW AND SOCIAL JUSTICE? [DS] I remember deciding it in the eighth grade! People thought I was weird, but it stuck. There was no lawyer role model in my family; I just always wanted to help people who didn’t have access to resources. That sounds dorky and hokey, but it’s the truth.

YOU’RE MARRIED NOW, BUT TELL ME ABOUT MEETING YOUR WIFE AND THE COMINGOUT PROCESS. Looking back, I had tons of crushes on women but didn’t label them that. We started off as roommates, completely platonic. Meanwhile I was always working in favor of equality, social justice and civil rights for everyone. I was an LGBT supporter even before I self-identified. Eventually our friendship turned into something more. Coming out

was hard at first. My family was working class: Democrats, but conservative, family-values type people. I consider myself to be that as well, even though I’m also a crazy lefty liberal! But by the time my mother passed away, it was really important for her to be at our wedding. She adored my wife.

I ASK BECAUSE I WONDER: DID BEING PART OF THE LGBT COMMUNITY PLAY A ROLE IN YOUR PASSION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE? Equal rights and access to justice have always been important to me. But there’s another level when you identify on a personal level to being marginalized, or viewed as less-than and undeserving.

All members of the LGBT community can identify with that feeling.

WHY IS FUNDING FOR CIVIL LEGAL AID SO IMPORTANT? Lots of people think they know, from hearing Miranda Rights read on TV, that “you have a right to an attorney.” That’s true in a criminal case, not the civil process. We help people find help to navigate important, complex issues: like facing foreclosure or being denied food stamps. People often don’t know how to appeal the system.

They’re overwhelmed. There are middle-class people who can’t afford the help, never mind people living under the poverty line.

ARE THERE ANY INDIVIDUAL STORIES THAT KEEP YOU MOTIVATED? I remember one woman who was living paycheck to paycheck when she discovered she had breast cancer. She had to be in the hospital, and lost her job; frankly, that’s illegal discrimination. Because she lost her job and income, her

landlord threatened to evict her. Meanwhile she’s battling breast cancer. We found an attorney who helped her get her job back and negotiated with the landlord to let her pay back rent over time. She likes to say the attorney “swooped in and saved her life.” Because through no fault of her own the dominos fell, leaving her in a devastating situation.

AND THERE ARE MANY INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN THE LGBT COMMUNITY AND LOWINCOME COMMUNITIES. Yes. One program we’re working on across the state is social competency for LGBT community members. It’s important for social justice organizations to work together, combine resources and learn from one another. It’s clear the folks on the right believe in “divide and conquer.” We have to counter that through working together and offering support.

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Jonathan Scott President & CEO, Victory Programs In 1975, Jonathan Scott walked into The Victory House as a Boston College volunteer.

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[SPIRIT] YOUR FATHER WAS A LEGENDARY CONDUCTOR OF THE NEW YORK CITY BALLET: YOUR MOTHER, THE FIRST WOMAN FILM CRITIC FOR THE ‘NEW YORK TIMES’. DO THE ARTS INFLUENCE YOUR NONPROFIT WORK? [JS] I grew up doing homework backstage at every great opera house in the world, and got to experience what artists go through to make something beautiful: the dedication, the inner strength, the belief in a vision, the ability to make something from nothing. I grew to love the power of words, and every time I do public speaking I think of my mother, and that artistic process that never ends.

I rewrite my address after I’ve already given it!

HOW DID VICTORY PROGRAMS DEVELOP ITS REPUTATION AS AN ESPECIALLY LGBT-INCLUSIVE ORGANIZATION? In 1975, if you were gay you had to hide who you were to get into a homeless shelter. I was coming out myself at the time, watching people be barred from other facilities. I remember one young guy knocking on the door of Victory House after he was thrown out of the Salvation Army and beaten up. I vowed I could make a difference, make it known that if you were gay or transgender this was a safe place for you. It was my bit for the community.

YOU’RE ALSO THE FORMER CHAIRMAN OF MASSEQUALITY. TELL ME ABOUT THAT TIME. I was so impressed with how the LGBT community came together and the way that activism had changed since the ‘70s, when I remember going to Pride and feeling the people full of anger. The anger was justified, deeply rooted in horrific loss. Our demonstration was not pacifist or peaceful. So it was amazing to be part of the gay marriage movement, with this other spectrum of love and

beautiful, persuasive activism.

A great joy I’ve had as a gay man out for 40 years is seeing the different ways our community comes together.

ARE THERE CERTAIN MOMENTS THAT KEEP YOU MOTIVATED? Every day I come to work I have that experience. I talk to people who are newly diagnosed with HIV or living with the ravages of addiction, and every day it reminds me that I’m a beginner too—and there but for the grace of God go I. Our residents bring more to my life than I bring to them. They always tell the truth.

When you have nothing left to lose, the only thing to do is face the truth. It’s amazing to be reminded of that.

WHY HAVE MERGERS BEEN SUCH A SUCCESSFUL APPROACH FOR VICTORY PROGRAMS? I specifically look for organizations that are anomalies, individualistic, and provide something no one else is providing, but that is still so important to an overall infrastructure. But we’re not McDonalds that comes in and puts up our golden arches: we honor the story, tradition, and brand personality of each organization. We’ve had 15 different mergers with agencies that otherwise would have gone out of business. Now they can live out their purpose. Because one thing I know is that once we lose something we love, it’s almost impossible to get it back.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE OF THE PROGRAM LOOK LIKE? Understanding that AIDS is not over. That addiction is hardly over, though it may morph into the next club drug du jour. We still have very core societal problems, and with our programming happening in an urban environment, we also understand that communities and needs change from block to block to block.

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burns & levinson’s lgbt group Name>> Lisa M. Cukier Occupation>> Partner at Burns & Levinson LLP Areas of Practice>> Family Law, Estate and Trust Litigation, Guardianship and Conservatorship As a family law attorney, what is your best advice for your LGBT clients who are interested in getting married or starting a family?>> I do not think people realize that the Windsor decision did not totally strike down DOMA, and that marriages, parentage and inheritance rights cannot always cross state lines. Consider this: If your parentage is dependent on Massachusetts law and is based on your marriage, and then you move to a non-recognition state, you may not be recognized as the parent of your child and may thus not have custody rights nor child support obligations. If you die without a will in a non-recognition state, your spouse and children may have no right to inherit from you or your family and vice-versa as to your right to inherit from your spouse. If your marriage sours and you need a divorce while you reside in a non-recognition state, you may not be able to divorce unless you reestablish residence in a marriage equality state. Consult with me before you marry and start a family!

Name>> Scott H. Moskol Occupation>> Partner and Vice Chairman of the Financial Restructuring & Distressed Transactions Group at Burns & Levinson LLP Areas of Practice>> Financial Restructuring & Distressed Transactions, Finance and Corporate What are the biggest issues facing LGBT-owned businesses in 2014?>> At Burns & Levinson, the Financial Restructuring Group has been working with many small and mid-size businesses – regardless if the owners are LGBT – in navigating the difficult financial environment that we are faced with today. While there is a wide away of financial or operational restructuring issues upon which we advise our clients, if the Fed does continue its tapering of bond purchases in the near future, it is not unlikely that the interest rates will rise in the next 18 months. While interest rates are low, we advise our clients to explore lending opportunities now before it becomes more expensive to do so in the long run.

Name>> Deb Peckham Occupation>> Partner and Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Group at Burns & Levinson LLP Areas of Practice>> Intellectual Property What are some of your viewpoints on current political issues facing the LGBT community?>> It’s time for Proposition 8 and DOMA to be part of our history and I believe the Court will get it right, even if they do so for narrow reasons. Regardless, the tide has turned in just a few years and it is thrilling to be witness to it.

legal counsel. business advisors. burnslev.com 617.345.3000 Office Locations: Boston (HQ), Andover, Hingham, New York, Providence, Waltham

Name>> Peter F. Zupcofska Occupation>> Partner at Burns & Levinson LLP Areas of Practice>> Family Law and Probate Litigation (MA & NY) What are you looking forward to most in 2014?>> I have been spending most of my time in 2014 at the Firm’s New York City office. I’m proud to be able to offer the New York LGBT community my experience in premarital agreements and divorce resolution, and to bring the quality of work and client care that Burns & Levinson is known for in Boston to New York City. Despite success in the Windsor case, gays and lesbians still need experienced counsel to help them navigate the opportunities and restrictions associated with marriage.

Name>> Donald E. Vaughan Occupation>> Partner and Co-Chair of the Real Estate Group, and member of Burns & Levinson’s Executive Committee Areas of Practice>> Real Estate and Estate Planning Most profound change you’ve made as a result of your law practice?>> I came out as a summer associate at my first firm, in 1982, and became a partner there in 1989. I’ve been open about my orientation all my career. Less so today than earlier on, I think that made a difference to those I worked with, both in my practice and in the community at large. I have come to see the wisdom in the saying that it is much harder for people to support anti-gay discrimination when someone they know is hurt by it.

Name>> Ellen J. Zucker Occupation>> Partner at Burns & Levinson LLP Areas of Practice>> Employment Law, Business Litigation and White Collar Criminal Defense What is your favorite thing to do in the summer in New England?>> Summer is supposed to be a time when trial schedules slow, and problems for clients are fewer. While it doesn’t always work that way, every year I manage to get away and, even if the dining room table is spilling over with work papers, I do the thing I love to do most in the summer: I spend time in Truro walking along the beach and hanging out with my son.

Name>> Timothy J. Famulare Occupation>> Associate at Burns & Levinson LLP Areas of Practice>> Real Estate and Design & Construction What is your advice for a young LGBT individual considering becoming an attorney?>> The current evolving legal landscape with respect to same-sex marriages and protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression offers incredible opportunities for LGBT individuals to make a difference in the legal profession. There are also extraordinary opportunities to develop practices assisting LGBT individuals, families, and non-profit organizations in the fields of real estate, estate planning, corporate, and elder care law. I strongly encourage potential law students to consider staying in the Boston area for law school — especially my alma mater, BU! The Boston-area schools have very vibrant and active LGBT student organizations, and I would also recommend getting involved with the Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association as a law student member. The LGBTQ legal community here is very tight-knit and supportive, and the LGBTQ Bar Association offers excellent networking opportunities for law students.

Name>> Laura R. Studen Occupation>> Partner at Burns & Levinson LLP Areas of Practice>> Business Litigation, Employment Law and Family Law What are your favorite things to do in the summer in New England?>> There are a few favorite things I like to do in the summer: bike, kayak, swim, beach, hike, dine outdoors, socialize with friends over great wines, go to movies, read good books, garden, use my tractor to repair stone walls, cook with fresh vegetables, listen to music, golf and fly fishing. Those are a few of the things I enjoy doing with old friends and making new friends. In my spare time, I enjoy my work.

Burns & Levinson is a Boston-based law firm with over 120 attorneys and offices in Providence and New York, as well as in the Merrimack Valley / North Shore, Metro West and South Shore areas of Massachusetts. We work with entrepreneurs, emerging businesses, private and public companies and individuals in sophisticated business transactions, litigation and private client services – family law, trusts & estates, marriage and divorce law.

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Mason Dunn Executive Director, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition Mason Dunn’s life has been a series of natural transitions, gender identity being the least of them.

He was raised in Orange Country, California, went to college in Oregon and, eventually, law school in New Hampshire. Along the way, his career and social justice work evolved too: He’s been on the steering committee for Transgender New Hampshire, an organizer with the New Hampshire Coalition for Transgender Equality, and is an adjunct faculty member in the communications department of the University of New Hampshire at Manchester, specializing in LGBTQ images and perspectives.

Last year he became the new executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, an organization he’s poised to develop into an even more thriving, vital version of itself.

[CONTINUES 53]

50 | BOSTON SPIRIT

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Bernadette Coveney Smith Founder, 14 Stories When same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, Bernadette Coveny Smith saw an opportunity to start a business—and make a difference. She founded 14 Stories—named in reference to the original plaintiffs of the Goodridge case—the country’s first firm to specialize in legal gay weddings. Over the last decade she’s not only grown that business, now with an office in New York, but also expanded into other ventures. She’s written books and developed a smartphone app about gay wedding planning, launched a suit and tuxedo line for “the dapper queer,” and most importantly, launched the Gay Wedding Institute: an initiative that trains and certifies wedding and events industry vendors to work with LGBT couples in an informed, culturally competent way. Thanks to her business, many more love stories will have a happy ending.

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legitimate. That’s a hard thing for people to express, but I’ve picked up on it.

[BCS] When the Goodridge case came down in favor of marriage equality, there were all these protests and clashes.

I was working for a nonprofit and my office was downtown, so I would often go rally at the State House. I had already decided I was going to be an entrepreneur, I just hadn’t decided what that would mean.

But looking at all these couples I decided, “Someone has to plan these weddings!” I’d done event planning as part of my career but knew nothing about the wedding industry—just that it was very straight. It was a light bulb moment.

WHAT NEW TRENDS ARE GAY WEDDINGS CREATING?

WHAT FUNDAMENTALS DO YOU COVER WITH THE GAY WEDDING INSTITUTE? The idea is to train my peers to not just be open-minded, but to be advocates for their clients. Planning a gay wedding is significantly different for a number of reasons. I spend a lot of time talking about laws: the Defense of Marriage Act, anti-discrimination policies, the marriage patchwork across the states, how a wedding photographer can deny a gay couple and there’s no grounds for a lawsuit. They are shocked.

They have no idea. And they know nothing about transgender people. There’s a lot of time spent on education about the community, and that’s just the warm-up.

WITH FEWER TRADITIONS IN PLACE, IS IT DAUNTING FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES TO PLAN? It’s overwhelming. What do you do if you don’t follow the template? There’s a liberating sense of possibility and fun when you’re not tied to tradition.

On the other hand, people want to provide enough familiarity to guests. One thing I’ve noticed a lot, with those who grew up Catholic or Christian, is people wanting an officiant who looks like a priest—even if that person’s not a priest. It’s this idea that somehow family will perceive the marriage as more

There are trends like dual processions, when the couple walks in simultaneously. Things are done in different orders: like portraits before the ceremony.

And there are a lot of things people aren’t doing, like a first dance with mom or dad, cake cutting and bouquet tosses.

Another trend is additional entertainment beyond the DJ, whether that means a drag performer or go-go boys.

WHAT’S ONE WEDDING YOU WORKED ON THAT FELT ESPECIALLY MEANINGFUL? The marriage of Joanne Herman to Terry Fallon. Joanne is a transgender activist and basically said to me, “I want you to help me become the bride I’ve always wanted to be.” I get goose bumps thinking about it.

She was feeling very vulnerable and wanted to go through the process in a supported way. She was afraid she’d experience discrimination at bridal shops.

Well she was a beautiful bride; the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus performed at the wedding; and both fathers walked them down the aisle. The whole experience was so emotional for me.

WHAT WAS YOUR OWN WEDDING LIKE? It was very high energy, very spirited. It was at the Exchange Conference Center on the harbor, with a plated New England clambake. There was an Irish band and a toast of Irish mead; then [drag queen] Mizery did a performance to “We Are Family.” Jaws were on the floor! Family came from all over, including an 80-something year old aunt from Scotland. It was an amazing feeling to have that support and validation.

Even before I became a wedding planner, I wanted my own wedding to be like a coming out party.

[FROM 50] [SPIRIT] TELL ME ABOUT YOUR OWN COMING OUT PROCESS. [MD] I came out in 2004, but trans identity and what that meant for me really developed over time. I’m glad it did. I felt it was important for me to not be rushed into one box or another so soon after coming out. I spent the time evaluating my identity and talking to friends and family about gender, sexuality and how these things intersect. In 2011, I decided I needed to transition, and because of how long I had been working in the trans community it wasn’t a shock to anyone. It flowed naturally for me. I’m lucky to be able to say that.

HOW DID YOUR WORK WITH DIFFERENT NEW HAMPSHIRE ORGANIZATIONS BEST PREPARE YOU FOR MASS TPC? In New Hampshire it was really just a gift to see the trans community come together in a place where you don’t have the benefit you do in Boston, of organizations working on important issues that you can get behind. Just having people together for a potluck discussion or seeing people show up for a Transgender Day of Remembrance was a big accomplishment and it was an honor to be part of it.

BESIDES A PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONSINCLUSIVE EQUAL RIGHTS BILL, WHAT ISSUES AFFECTING THE TRANS COMMUNITY ARE ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO YOU? Criminal justice reform is something I’m really passionate about. It touches so many different lives and many different points. It’s important that officers, courts and advocates understand trans identities. I’m also thinking about intersections of race and class and how that applies to LGBT identity, like the amount of LGBT youth who are homeless. And I’m looking at what we’re doing to help around immigration.

People are coming to the US

as refugees seeking asylum because they’ve been persecuted on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. Are our immigration services prepared to be trans inclusive and empower individuals coming from traumatic experiences?

FORMER EXEC DIRECTOR GUNNER SCOTT WAS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF MASS TPC. HOW ARE YOU MOST SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT? I respect Gunner and I consider him a mentor in many ways.

But we’re also very different, and that’s a positive thing. I’ve been told I’m a little quieter, that I have a different style and approach when it comes to advocacy work. There are opportunities for me to grow as an individual and put my own stamp on this organization.

ARE THERE ANY MOMENTS THAT KEEP YOU INSPIRED IN YOUR WORK? I helped host a trans conference in Concord, New Hampshire.

It wasn’t just for trans people, but professionals like doctors, lawyers and social workers to learn more about trans experience. I didn’t intend for it, but a number of parents also came to get resources. I got an email afterwards from a mother.

She wrote, “If it weren’t for that conference, I don’t think my child would be alive today. You helped me understand my child better, and equipped us to go through this journey together.”

I saved that email, and when I’m having a crisis of faith or struggling to get up and keep doing this work, I take it out.

WHAT’S SOMETHING NEW YOU’RE EXCITED TO WORK ON? Our community advocates program is an initiative to empower people who are already doing work in their communities, who are already advocates for the trans community. We do what we can to provide them tools. There’s fantastic work already going on. Rather than us saying, “This is what you should do,” we say, “Keep doing what you’re doing.

How can we help?”

MAY|JUN 2014 | 53

Lisa Keen Owner and chief correspondent, Keen News Service Keen readers already know her. Since 1979 her byline has accompanied reporting on essentially every aspect of LGBT politics and culture, covering everyone from Barney Frank to Bette Midler. She was one of the first reporters for a gay newspaper to cover the national Democratic convention, and one of the first to be credentialed to cover the White House. And she spent 18 years as editor of the esteemed Washington Blade, where one especially evocative series of interviews, tracing the story of an early AIDS victim from diagnosis to death, won a Society of Professional Journalists award. Now Keen runs her own news service. Her ear is still to the ground, her pen still on the pulse of LGBT issues, and she’s adapted to a new media landscape where at least one thing hasn’t changed: the need for the best, brightest, and most dedicated journalists in the business.

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[SPIRIT] EARLY ON, WHAT WAS THE ATTITUDE TOWARD GAY PRESS FROM THE MAINSTREAM PRESS? [LK] As the gay community grew, the mainstream press respected the gay press, which was the Washington Blade, as a legitimate news organization.

But I remember once hanging out with members of Queer Nation at the National Press Club. We met there every month. The maître d’ knew us well. One day a guard ordered us to leave because the governor of California, Pete Wilson, was going to give a speech. It was because of alleged security concerns, as though Queer Nation would disrupt it. The club later profusely apologized, but it was pretty obvious that wouldn’t happen if the straight Washington Post had been sitting there.

HOW HAS THE NEWS BUSINESS CHANGED? I feel it went to hell in a hand basket about ten years ago, when things began taking off with social media reporting: this idea of being first on the block to know something.

The reader has evolved into a profile that wants things very fast and unfortunately doesn’t care too much about where they get it. There will always be sophisticated readers, but overall I don’t think readers in this new landscape have evolved enough that they realize a reliable source. Eventually, as mistakes are made, the general reader will become more discerning about where they spend their time.

WHAT LGBT ISSUES ARE YOU ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN FOLLOWING RIGHT NOW? The clash between religious freedom and LGBT issues is an interesting subject area right now. It’s erupting in many different areas and in many disguises. It’s riveting to follow the bouncing ball. I feel like it’s an organized effort by people who are unfriendly to LGBT

people, sitting in conference rooms and saying, “How can we pitch something that frames this as being about religious freedom?” You see it popping up a lot, what recently happened in Kansas [the Religious Freedom Act] being a prime example.

WHAT’S THE MOST DIFFICULT KIND OF STORY TO WORK? Any story where I had to report on something about the gay infrastructure that was in need of correction. I knew I’d have a price to pay for reporting those stories and shining a light on a national gay political organization that did not present them in a positive way. I knew I’d get cold shoulders, but I have an obligation to readers to do those stories. Readers need to know facts, including those that aren’t necessarily favorable.

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WHAT’S THE HARDEST QUESTION YOU’VE HAD TO ASK? “Are you gay?” I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten good at asking that question. I try to explain why I’m asking it: because my readers are LGBT readers, and a person’s sexual orientation is important to them. But first I apologize if it feels invasive, because I do believe in the right to privacy.

WHAT’S ONE QUALITY FROM YOUR CUB REPORTING DAYS THAT YOU’VE TRIED TO RETAIN? It sounds a little hokey to say, but I always try to put myself in the shoes of the person I’m interviewing and give them as much respect as possible.

Every once in a while I have to interview someone I find it very hard to have a great deal of genuine respect for, but I give them a fair chance to explain themselves. I learned very early on that I feel for people caught in the crossfire of a particularly tough journalist. And tough journalists aren’t necessarily good journalists. I feel empathy for people.

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Nathalia Holt Author, “CURED: How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical Science” Holt isn’t gay. But as an award-winning research scientist specializing in HIV biology (a research fellow at Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard), she is acutely aware of whose stories have, and have not, been told about the AIDS epidemic. Enter: “Cured,” her just-released book, that traces with non-wonky, engaging ease, the rapid progress in HIV/AIDS research over the last 20 years.

The tome humanizes the stories of the “Berlin Patients,” the only two men in the world to have been functionally cured of HIV. And it elaborates on how their stories furthered subsequent breakthroughs—including research conducted by LGBT scientists who, says Holt, have not always received the attention they deserve. By bringing us these stories, Holt offers a healthy dose of education—and vital source of inspiration.

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[SPIRIT] WHAT’S YOUR EARLIEST MEMORY OF THE AIDS EPIDEMIC? [NH] I think my first experience was as a teenager, volunteering with a friend at Saint Clare’s in Hell’s Kitchen. At the time it had this very large HIV ward, and it was one of those experiences that just stayed with me. The conditions before combination therapy were just so hopeless.

It was a horrible place and my first experience with how tragic this was.

AS AN ALLY, DID THAT OPEN YOUR EYES TO STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION AFFECTING THE GAY COMMUNITY? Discrimination is exactly how it felt to me. It was almost exclusively gay men in this hospital in New York City, and it really felt like discrimination at work. It was a really hard thing to witness as a teenager, and yet being that age made it that much more powerful. It was like a first brush with seeing how the world works, all the prejudice and inequalities.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO WRITE “CURED”?

You have these people cured of HIV, and not many people have heard their stories. It’s an even smaller group of people that understand what they mean, how medicine is changing for HIV, and how important they were to influencing that. It’s about educating people and showing not just how these stories changed clinical trials, but what it all means for the next generation. And something I’m really proud of in this book is representing the LGBT scientists that I see all around me, yet rarely in non-fiction books, and the important role they play.

WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH IS EXCITING YOU RIGHT NOW? Some of it is very recent. There was a paper recently in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed promise for gene therapy in curing HIV. For a long time that wasn’t being

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YOU MENTION DEALING WITH DIFFICULT FEEDBACK ABOUT SOME OF YOUR OWN RESEARCH. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?

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Some of the feedback has been along the lines of: “We shouldn’t even be looking for a cure for HIV. It’s really not necessary, we have therapies to help people stay alive for a long time.” These are some of the comments I’ve heard and still hear today. And that’s what really gets me. It gets back to the whole idea of stigma, the idea that somehow people living with HIV are lesser and don’t deserve the same level of research.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RAPID PROGRESS WE’VE MADE IN FIGHTING THIS DISEASE? We’ve gone from five years ago, when people wouldn’t use the word “cure” in a meeting, to whole symposiums where it’s used frequently in all the presentations. But it’s not just the language that changed; the research is now being funded.

What’s so promising is that it’s such a quick turn-around that you don’t typically see in medicine. It shows how excited people are about this small number of people cleared of the virus.

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Beth Bye Connecticut State Senator Beth Bye follows her heart. That’s what led her to come out as a lesbian later in life and create a blended family with her wife and their four children. (They were the first gay couple to be married in Connecticut.)

And it’s what led her to politics following a successful career in early childhood education, when she developed and directed several prominent childcare programs, and contributed heralded research to the field.

Education remains a major priority for Bye in the Connecticut Senate, which she joined in 2011 after two terms in the House of Representatives. But whether she was offering impassioned testimony for equal marriage or working toward the inclusion of gender identity to Connecticut’s antidiscrimination laws, Bye has never wavered in her push for equality: a march set to the beat of her big heart.

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[SPIRIT] WHAT WAS YOUR COMING OUT EXPERIENCE LIKE? [BB] How I came to accept being gay is by doing what I’ve done in my career: following my passion.

When I met Tracy [her wife]: I had been divorced and she was going through a divorce. We lived across the street and loved playing tennis together. When you’re going through a divorce you need support. So we’d talk, take walks, and soon realized we were more than just friends. It was unexpected.

WAS IT DIFFICULT, PARTICULARLY COMING OUT LATER IN LIFE? We were very closeted at first.

At the time I was director for an early childhood center that was part of a Catholic organization.

My lawyer basically said, “They can fire you if you’re working with children and influencing their values.” I was a very popular director. I raised the money that made it a model for the state. It was my home, but my relationship with Tracy was much more important. Basically they said, “You can’t be out on campus.” That wasn’t okay for long.

WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO RUN FOR SENATE? Tracy and I were part of the movement Love Makes a Family, and we went down to the State House to watch the debates on civil unions. We were there with all these gays and we felt so safe; we still weren’t really out. My representative took his turn to speak. He had represented my district for 26 years. He lived two streets away. He got so worked up about civil unions, and said, “These people won’t stop until they have marriage!”

It took my breath away. I turned to these other women and I said: “I am running.”

HAS THERE BEEN BACKLASH TO BEING AN OUT POLITICIAN? During my first year there was a debate about marriage. I did this whole speech about how my father came to accept Tracy and me. It went viral. I woke up and it was on the front page of the “Courant,” on the radio and Internet. It was a really public coming out, and I had emails from around the country that were really nasty. But none of them matter. Because there were the most beautiful emails from all over saying, “I never thought I’d see this day. Thank you for telling your story.” They washed all the others away.

WHAT’S ONE LGBT-RELATED ACCOMPLISHMENT YOU’RE ESPECIALLY PROUD OF? After we got marriage, a lot of advocates celebrated and then went home. We left the trans community behind and didn’t complete the job. It took a few more years to pass the transgender nondiscrimination bill, but I was proud of that.

The happiest group of people I’ve ever seen—when walking out from the chamber—were the transgender folks after that happened.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOUR POLITICAL FUTURE? People say, don’t you feel like running for something else— maybe running for Congress?

But I want to go home every night to the person I love. You can’t be in a leadership position like that without going out every night, campaigning, flying somewhere. I feel like I’m in the perfect place. When I talk about my political future it’s about how I’ll make the biggest impact: not where I am, but what I’m doing.

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Matt Kidd Executive director, Reaching Out MBA Matt Kidd is ready to get down to business. Last year he became the first executive director of Reaching Out MBA, a 16-year old national nonprofit that works to empower LGBT MBA students: cultivating the generation of out professionals with the potential to become business world movers, shakers and power players. Kidd, who previously sat on the board of the LGBT-focused Greater Boston Business Council, holds his own MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and spent years developing theatrical productions (he’s the former assistant producer of North Shore Music Theatre) and technology start-ups. That will all come in handy as he expands Reaching Out’s volunteer-driven programming, the centerpiece of which is an annual conference (this year October 2-4 in New Orleans) that allows over 1,200 LGBT students to network with dozens of Fortune 500 company business leaders and recruiters.

He’s reaching out and touching the lives of bright future leaders.

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[SPIRIT] HOW’D YOU GO FROM THEATER AND TECH START-UPS TO THE NONPROFIT WORLD? [MK] Looking at my professional life, the common thread has been the idea of creating something and bringing it to the marketplace, letting it blossom and grow: whether that’s a theatrical show, a start-up, or an event. Reaching out is 15 years old but we’re really expanding our content and expanding what we do in a lot of ways.

AS THE FIRST EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WHERE DO YOU WANT TO TAKE THE ORGANIZATION? This gives us a large opportunity to grow the programming. I joke that I’ll be taking the convention on a road show. Looking beyond the conference, it’s about gaining access to high-level LGBT professionals to bring them to students in multiple areas.

We’re trying to educate, inspire and connect LGBT MBAs. So imagine bringing someone like John Brown, the former out CEO of BP, into an open forum with students at NYU or Columbia. They’d have this great experience, be inspired, and get access to people who can help them. That’s our mission.

IS THERE UNIQUE DISCRIMINATION AFFECTING OUR MBAS? I’m lucky in that because I’ve been based in entertainment and technology, which I both consider pretty open-minded environments, I’ve never personally experienced it. But I often hear folks at different companies tell me about terminology that basically implies someone’s personality is too flamboyant. We also hear from foreign students, and they have very different stories. Many are coming from backgrounds where this is something you just don’t talk about and they’re not comfortable expressing certain things.

Dealing with these issues is important, in terms of a global business perspective.

WITH LGBT-SUPPORTIVE CORPORATIONS BECOMING MORE COMMON, WHY DO WE NEED AN ORGANIZATION LIKE REACHING OUT? It’s about establishing dialogue. There’s still a need for education: to connect and learn from each other. For instance, my experience as a gay man in business is very different from that of a lesbian or a transgender person. We occasionally have schools send non-diversity candidates out to understand LGBT issues, and you’ll hear them ask questions like, “What is LGBT?” Also, as professionals we should be tapping into a tight network where a lot of people

know each other, to use that network going forward.

WHAT ARE SOME HOT BUTTON ISSUES YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT NOW? A hot button issue for students and organizations is: How do you engage allies in a way that is effective and positive, but also doesn’t overrun the LGBT aspect of a program? A major problem people are facing—as being associated with the community becomes a non-event—is having more allies than you know what to do with!

You’re getting to a point where an LGBT club at a school has 10 LGBT students and 45 allies. How do you still direct the discourse to LGBT folks?

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ORGANIZATION? Our goal is to expand regional events and really connect with leadership. We also want to expand our consulting program.

And I think it’s good to bring LGBT students from multiple schools together on education and business treks, or even settings like South by Southwest where they can do things together that are social but are still meeting with companies. There are also a lot of opportunities for more tailored and targeted programming involving fellowships and scholarship programs.

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Justin Chenette Maine State Representative At 22 years old, Chenette is the youngest legislator in Maine and the youngest openly gay legislator in the country. That’s a pretty notable distinction—to everyone but him.

After all, Chenette represents a generation that largely regards sexual orientation as a nonissue. So while he’s always been out, he’d rather constituents focus on his inner character. He’s a journalism junkie with a degree in broadcasting, a philanthropist (founder of the Saco Bay Center for Civic Engagement), and an entrepreneur who has founded his own multimedia company. He’s also a breath of fresh air: not just as a young gay politician who can pull off a landslide win (60 percent), but as a representative who is focused on solving problems, not playing politics.

PHOTO Courtesy Justin Chennete

62 | BOSTON SPIRIT

[SPIRIT] HOW DID IT FEEL TO FIND OUT YOU’RE THE YOUNGEST OPENLY GAY LEGISLATOR IN THE COUNTRY? [JC] I was surprised by it. I didn’t anticipate it and didn’t even think it would make headlines! I was open during the campaign but it wasn’t a huge issue. [Being gay] is not a factor that’s important to me and it shouldn’t generally be when we’re speaking about whom we’re going to elect. I just rolled with it, though I hope it serves as a positive example for LGBT youth that you can do whatever you want. Whether in politics or anything else, you can reach for it and work for it.

DID YOUR BEING OUT EVER COME UP WITH REGARD TO LGBT ISSUES? We had a religious freedom bill come up, just like the one in Arizona, which was a major concern. While my personal life isn’t something I talk about a lot, this was a bill where I could walk in and say, “This doesn’t represent Maine and makes me and others like me feel like second class citizens.” It changed the minds of enough to have it be veto proof. That was very important.

There are situations where you can bring your personal life into a conversation to make politics feel more human: to say, this positively or adversely affects me.

DID YOU DEAL WITH BACKLASH TO BEING OUT? At one point individuals consistently spraypainted my campaign signs with derogatory words. I had to get the police involved. That was the first time I saw the negative side of being an out candidate. Some people wanted me to make an issue of it: bring it to light, call it out and hammer home that this is not acceptable. I disagreed. I kept it quiet. I felt winning at the ballot box would prove the point well beyond responding. I got heat from the community for that, but I believe it was the right approach. Winning with 60 percent shoves it right back in their face without giving them the power of additional spotlight.

GIVEN YOUR BACKGROUND IN JOURNALISM, WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RUN FOR OFFICE? I’ve always been fascinated with journalism because I love holding leaders accountable.

I love asking tough questions: getting beyond the BS and into the nitty-gritty of what they’re actually doing to help people.

I believe in the idea of journalists being watchdogs. … But as a journalist you’re supposed to be unbiased, and if I think someone is blatantly incorrect, I want to be able to say it. So I said, let’s rethink this: why don’t I try to hold leaders accountable

internally, and make change happen from the inside?

WHAT ISSUES ARE ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO YOU RIGHT NOW? One of my top priorities is campaign finance reform. It may not be a popular issue around dinner tables, but the more I unearth about how much money plays a role in public policy, the more I see how there is a completely legal system of bribery that politicians have set up. It takes the power out of the hands of the people. Whoever has the largest checkbook runs the show, and we’ll never tackle the real problems facing us until we resolve this issue.

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOUR POLITICAL FUTURE GOING NEXT? It depends on my level of frustration.

[Laughs] This is not something that I want to do forever, and I think it’s important for everyone to remember that you don’t need to be in politics to make a difference.

And that’s what I want to do, whether it happens through my nonprofit, serving in the legislature, being an entrepreneur or a journalist. The vehicle doesn’t matter, as long I get to it.

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Kim Driscoll Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts We’re under the spell of Salem. In recent years the Witch City has become an epicenter of LGBT life on the North Shore; among other things, it hosts the new North Shore Pride celebrations and is home base to the region’s gay networking group Go Out Loud. But the inclusive climate is also thanks in large part to Mayor Kim Driscoll, a staunch ally who made Salem the first North Shore town to fly the Pride flag from its City Hall. But her commitment goes much deeper than mere shows of support. Last year Driscoll established firstof-their-kind LGBT liaisons in the Mayor’s Office and police department, and this year she signed into law a public accommodations-inclusive transgender nondiscrimination ordinance, making Salem only the fifth community in Massachusetts (and first in its region) to do so. It may be America’s Halloween hotspot, but Salem is also, thanks to Driscoll, one gay-friendly haunt.

PHOTO John Andrews at Social Palates

64 | BOSTON SPIRIT

[SPIRIT] TELL ME ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF THE NONDISCRIMINATION ORDINANCE. [KD] I think it’s just so powerful when you consider that Salem has this infamous legacy tied to the witch trials, yet we’ve moved so far away from that and affirmed inclusion with an ordinance. Yes, there’s a notorious part of our history, but it’s not a recent revelation that Salem has become a very welcoming place. I think one of our greatest values is our diverse community of people from all different background.

To assert that formally means a lot to the community. And it makes me so happy that our next generation is growing up blind to these differences.

WAS THERE A POLITICAL BACKLASH? If anything, I think it sends a message.

Mayors sometimes look to each other to see what someone else is doing. I was recently with the mayor of Holyoke and the nondiscrimination ordinance came up. He said, “I saw that on your Facebook page. We don’t have one.” It spurs conversation, and there’s strength in numbers. But a real leader moves forward based on the strength of what you believe in. I’m no profile in courage. This was easy to do here. But I hope in other

places they see what can happen with this kind of coalition building.

SALEM ALSO SCORED HIGH ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN’S MUNICIPAL EQUALITY INDEX! We elected to submit our scores to the HRC, and we’re very proud of it, by the way! We hit TK percent. It allows us to make sure our mindset is coming through in actual practices, that we’re formally following our mission. It’s like the “Good Housekeeping” Seal of Approval! It’s a way to measure that our hearts are in line with our actions.

HAVE THE LGBT LIAISONS BROUGHT TO LIGHT ANY ISSUES TO ADDRESS? It’s more that people now know exactly where to go with a concern. I can’t say that pockets of bigotry don’t exist in Salem; I’m not naïve enough to think that. But that makes it all the more important to showcase those moments like where we come together. Every Halloween we have groups that come from all over the country, crazy types that preach out on the sidewalk, yelling awful, belligerent things on bullhorns and trying to incite problems under the auspices of being good Christians. People give it right back to them. [Laughs]

WHAT LED YOU TO BEING SUCH A STRONG ALLY? I grew up as a tomboy—some people would say I still am! I played women’s sports and basketball through college. I was just used to having friends and teammates, people I was close to, with different lifestyles. It was normal. And I thank god my parents were never the kind of people who expressed bigotry at home. It was just a comfortable part of my life to be around people with all different lifestyles.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU POLITICALLY? It’s been nine years now, and it’s such a great job it’s hard to think about something else.

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Pedro Segarra Mayor of Harford, Connecticut Segarra is only the second openly gay mayor of a state capital, and the first to be legally married. That might sound noteworthy, but his biggest success has been the turnaround of Hartford that has taken place under his leadership.

In short: dramatically rising graduation rates, lowered crime rates, a city economy rebounding from a period of crisis. (Segarra inherited a somewhat messy office; his mayoral predecessor resigned amid a bribery scandal.) His journey has taken him from a childhood in Puerto Rico to teen years in the Bronx, from the University of Connecticut School of Law (where he was founding president of the Latino Law Student Organization) to the State House.

There’s still much work to do, but right now he has his Hartford in the right place.

PHOTO Courtesy Pedro Sagarra

66 | BOSTON SPIRIT

[SPIRIT] WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST EXPOSURE TO THE GAY COMMUNITY IN PUERTO RICO? [PS] My mother was a domestic for well-to-do families. I noticed when she’d leave Catholic church she’d go to the corner where all the transgender and gay people would hang out; she’d give one a dollar and another advice. It turned out a lot of these were the young kids that these well-to-do families had ostracized. I knew that they were different, even though I didn’t understand what it meant.

IT SOUNDS LIKE SHE SENT A PRETTY WELCOMING MESSAGE. Once when I was about six, these straight macho men were taunting this kid. He ran to my house, crying, to confide to my mother that he was about to end it all. My mother stomped to the corner and started yelling at them: Don’t you have anything better to do? Are you so unsure of your manhood you have to

taunt these kids? I asked my mom why he seemed to act like a girl. She just said, look: people come in all shapes, sizes, and ways of acting. I had good, positive messages from my mom.

WAS THERE ANY BACKLASH TO RUNNING AS AN OUT CANDIDATE? I think it made it easier that I had spent 30 years doing civic work in the community. As an attorney who did a lot of pro bono work, people in the community knew me and came up to me all the time. When someone found out I was gay it helped the cause rather than hurt, because I was someone out there helping people. Other political candidates tried to tap into homophobia, but found out early on it was going to be counterproductive.

YOU WERE WITH YOUR HUSBAND FOR YEARS. HOW DID BECOMING

LEGALLY MARRIAGE IMPACT YOU? There is still so much work to do in combating homophobia, certain communities where either because of ignorance or culture there’s a way of repelling acceptance. But it’s important that now you can say, look, there is nothing illegal or illegitimate about me as a gay person under the eyes of the law. We’re still a long way from getting to where we need to be in terms of full equality, but as we gain influence and political savvy, we’re certainly getting there.

WHY DO YOU THINK MARRIAGE IS SO IMPORTANT TO EQUALITY? A lot of my gay friends were caught in the AIDS epidemic, and that was something that forced me to become more active and vocal about issues like marriage equality. I sort of started to make this connection between our relationships not being valued, and the instability in gay relationships.

It didn’t create stability for our community. By the time I was

with my partner we were both very active in the marriage equality movement. My husband Charlie’s sister is a lesbian and his brother is transgender and died in the AIDS epidemic. And my husband has continued that fight for transgender equality.

WHAT NEW COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN COMMUNITIES CAN BE FORMED TO IMPROVE LGBT LIFE? There’s a lot of work that needs to be done across different areas, like in the church. The Immanuel Congregational Church recently adopted a policy of being open and accepting to the community. We need for all organizations to do their work in ways that are open, compassionate and accessible.

We’re starting a process of dialogue. When you get people talking about it they realize— and I know this is really worn out but—they realize, who am I to judge someone? Jesus loved.

And the church is supposed to be a sanctuary to all. [x]

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Learn more about Salem, Massachusetts at Salem.org MAY|JUN 2014 | 67

CULTURE Theater STORY Loren King

She’s Baaaack!

Elizabeth Erardi as Carrie in SpeakEasy Stage Company’s New England Premiere production. PHOTO John Howrey

From legendary flop to re-tooled success, ‘Carrie the Musical’ rises in Boston It’s a modern show biz legend: part fable, part horror story, part revenge fantasy.

Carrie the Musical, based on Brian De Palma’s landmark 1976 adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel which starred Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, is widely known as one of the most famous and expensive flops on Broadway. It closed in 1988 after only 16 previews and five performances. But in a rare rising-fromthe-ashes two decades later, the all-gay creative team behind Carrie the Musical did a major revision of their show.

Under the director of Stafford Arima, the revamped Carrie opened Off-Broadway in 2012 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and won a batch of awards. Best of all, the revival gave license to other companies to produce the show, a privilege long denied by the show’s creators after the 1988 debacle.

The SpeakEasy Stage Company opens Carrie the Musical May 9 to June 7 under the direction of Paul Melone, who helmed Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (2013) and

68 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Adding Machine: A Musical (2010). In keeping with SpeakEasy’s mission to produce innovate area premieres, Carrie the Musical is an adventurous and apt choice to close the 2014 season.

Boston Spirit spoke by phone with Lawrence D. Cohen, whose connection to Carrie spans 40 years. He wrote the screenplay for the 1976 classic, and he wrote the book for both versions of the musical. (He had nothing to do with the 2013 remake of Carrie, directed by Kimberly Peirce but has a screen credit since much of his original script was used).

Cohen collaborated with his partner in life and work, Michael Gore (he’s the brother of legendary singer and now out lesbian Lesley Gore), the composer of Carrie, and lyricist Dean Pitchford. Among other accolades, Gore and Pitchford won an Oscar for best song for the 1980 movie Fame. Cohen is currently writing a memoir titled, What Were They Thinking?

Carrie, from Book to Movie to Musical.

[SPIRIT] Do you feel a sense of redemption as one of the few writers who got to go back, rewrite and re-stage a failed work?

[COHEN] It’s been a long adventure that’s

spanned many years and is the defining cornerstone of my professional life. I could not have anticipated this back in 1974. I was a couple of years out of college;

a stringer for the Hollywood Reporter in New York and because there’s not much money — the glamour of going to every Broadway opening night was cool but the reality was that I was getting five bucks a review. I got a gig as a story reader for David Susskind and in reading 35-40 scripts or books a week that had come in ... there was this little 200-page manuscript by a first time novelist who was an English teacher in Maine. I read the first five pages of Carrie and went completely crazy, [but] I could not persuade Susskind to do it.

So I went to every studio and producer I could think of and no one bit. ... I moved to L.A., and a friend said, ‘please meet with this producer,’ and I had no desire to work for a producer again, but I went. [Paul Monash] was a legend; he’d produced both Slaughterhouse 5 and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ...He told me about all his [upcoming] projects including Carrie. Fates had put an electrical light bulb, above me so I took the job.

[SPIRIT] And you wrote the screenplay for

Carrie which was a huge, unexpected hit. What made you want to turn it into a musical?

[LC] Back in 1980 people looked at us like,

‘What are they thinking?’ You could see the look in their eyes that we were out of our minds. We thought it made enormous sense. We all felt that it was an unusual but

incredible idea for a musical. Little did we know we were we headed into the biggest professional disaster of our lives. ... In 1984 we put the first act on its feet [when] Michael Bennett offered us his studio space downtown. Liz Callaway, Maureen McGovern threw in their participation.

Over the next two days we did readings and invited 200 theater people, producers, directors, and we performed the first hour of the show. It was an amazing response; we were the flavor of the month for half a year. ... We sat down with Mike Nichols, Bob Fosse, Ken Russell in England, James Lapine and on and on, ... but either they weren’t interested or weren’t quite right. Then we met with Terry Hands of the Royal Shakespeare Company. ...

He was articulate, persuasive; he really seemed to get it. But it turned out to be the mismatch of the century. He was super English and didn’t understand the phenomenon of American high school.

Except for Betty [Buckley, who played Margaret White] and Linzi [Hateley, who played Carrie], none of it made sense.

NBCVB-BostonSpirit_Layout 1 4/1/14 4:40 PM Page 1

“ Back in 1980 people looked at us like, ‘What are they thinking?’

You could see the look in their eyes that we were out of our minds.

We thought it made enormous sense. We all felt that it was an unusual but incredible idea for a musical. ” Lawrence D. Cohen [SPIRIT] There’s almost a mystique now around that 1988 show. It has its fans.

Why do you think it was such a failure?

[LC] There are a lot of myths about [the

abrupt closing]. We got a devastating review from Frank Rich [in the New York Times], but we got a rave from Clive Barnes in the Post; a bad review in Variety and a rave in the Reporter. The problem was the German producer who financed it ran out of money. His reserve was a rave

from Rich, so when that didn’t happen, he closed the bank and fled town. Just split.

Over the years, we got a ton of offers to do it in every possible venue: high schools, colleges, regional theaters, benefits. We said no to all of them. We had no desire to see it ever again. Aside from the phenomenal performances from Betty and Linzi, the rest of the show was like being on Mars, so we weren’t ready to get back up on the horse yet. In 2009 we were ready to go back to work on it, to get a version out there that we liked. The, by sheer coincidence, we got a call that ... Stafford Arima who’d done Altar Boyz had seen the show as a kid with his mom, and he was insane for it and hoped one day to direct it. ... We ended up at MCC downtown.

As bad as the first experience was, this one was as good. We took the show apart, rewrote half of it and ratcheted it up so it was very today. We made a conscious decision to set it in present.

[SPIRIT] So what was different this time around?

[LC] What had changed dramatically [from

1988] was social media. Someone filmed the 1988 show from the rear of the balcony and put it on YouTube and it got 100,000

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Elizabeth Erardi as Carrie in SpeakEasy Stage Company’s New England Premiere production. PHOTO John Howrey

hits and people were interested. Also, the notion of bullying was always inherent in the piece. Steve King, in addition to being a brilliant storyteller, wrote a fable that is the Frankenstein of our time ... Carrie is the ultimate poster child for bullying. In the 1973 book and the 1976 film, there was bullying going on but no one dealt with it or talked about it all that much. Now it has changed: the bullying [in Carrie] has a stronger resonance because we shaped it more in that direction. Kids and adults have come up after the show and talked to us with tears streaming about what the experience has meant to them.

[SPIRIT] I think Carrie resonated for LGBT people

even back in the ‘70s. She was an outcast; it has a camp element; an operatic element...

[LC] The broader canvas of the piece

has always been the ultimate tale of the outsider. The genius of Steve’s work is that even while keeping it in the realm of fable — Cinderella with a vengeance — he put his finger on those qualities that outsiders bring to the party. Without question [there is a gay] subtext, but it doesn’t exclude any of a number of other readings of it. The

outsider who is different is the strength of the story so that, even 40 years later, it bears retelling like any great classic.

[SPIRIT] There’s also the role of Margaret White, Carrie’s mother. Every actress who plays her just does great things with it.

[LC] It’s an incredible part that’s been

shaded many different ways. Like bullying, when the book and then the movie came out and Piper played her, the notion of the religious zealot was a bit over the top and also that figure was not someone many took seriously. What happened in the intervening years, again, is that suddenly that side of the religious right and a group like Westboro is deadly serious and the things Margaret has to say are no different than what’s coming out of the mouths of any of these people. We had to work at not making it too easy. The Margarets of the world walk within us. All the characters still leap off the page and will in another 40 years or 140 years. [x]

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CULTURE Dance STORY Loren King

Lord of the Dance Celebrated and influential, gay choreographer Mark Morris is no longer dance’s ‘bad boy’ Once considered the “enfant terrible” of modern dance with his signature long, curly hair, and provocative choreography, Mark Morris is now arguably the world’s most successful and influential choreographer.

Out since he formed the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1980, Morris was at the forefront of gay culture when

it wasn’t popular or commonplace, particulary during the AIDS-plagued 1980s. “In the early ‘80s I said I was gay all the time because it was important politically,” Morris told the New York Times.

Long a Boston favorite, Morris, 57, returns with a new, fully-staged opera production of Mozart’s arrangement of

Handel’s Acis and Galatea.

Co-produced by the Celebrity Series of Boston, this East Coast premiere will be performed at the Citi Shubert Theatre, May 15 through 18.

Choreographed and directed

by Morris, Acis and Galatea is

the MMDG’s 13th opera with the Celebrity Series. Over 12 years, MMDG has presented 29 dances including two world premieres (The Argument and Petrichor) for the Celebrity Series. It’s a partnership Morris prizes.

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“They have joined in as co-producers on this big and beautiful project. We have been working together for about 12 years, so something is right. It is important for my company to visit Boston annually,” Morris told Boston Spirit in an email interview.

Handel’s opera Acis and Galatea is based on Ovid’s Metamorphosis with the libretto written by John Gay in 1739. Mozart’s arrangement, written in 1788, broadens Handel’s original orchestration through the addition of bassoon, clarinet and horn. It’s a two-act opera about tenderness, rivalry and eternal love, among Acis, an Arcadian shepherd; Galatea, a sea nymph; and the cyclops Polyphemus, who jealously slays Acis. Four lead singers will perform the work in English: Thomas Cooley as Acis; Sherezade Panthaki as Galatea; Douglas Williams as Polyphemus; and Zach Finkelstein as Damon.

The soloists will be onstage with the dancers and the chorus will be in the pit with the orchestra.

So why was Morris attracted to this work?

“Acis and Galatea was Handel’s most popular and successful work in his lifetime.

It is a wonderful, humane pastorale. It is rather short and very concise. The Mozart update has a bigger and fuller sound so it works in larger theaters. It is the same piece, just a little expanded in orchestration. We’ll sing it in English,” he says.

Mozart’s music “swings,” says Morris. “To me, that’s irresistible.”

Since 1996, all works by MMDG are distinguished by the use of live music for every dance. For Acis and Galatea, conductor Nicholas McGegan leads the Handel and Haydn Society Period Orchestra and Chorus.

“H&H and MMDG collaborated on a touring production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Eurydice many years ago. It was very good. A good job is a good job.

Everyone involved enhances everyone involved. It will be a gorgeous, lively, moving evening,” Morris says of the collaboration.

Morris is known for his enduring partnerships with a stellar creative team: visual artist and scenic designer Adrianne Lobel; fashion and costume designer Isaac Mizrahi; and lighting designer Michael Chybowski. Mizrahi, the gay fashion icon and Project Runway: All Stars judge among many other endeavors, shares a friendship and partnership with Morris that goes as far back as 1997, when Mizrahi created costumes for Morris’s film project with Yo-Yo Ma, Falling Down Stairs from Ma’s Inspired By Bach series. Mizrahi also designed the costumes for the Metropolitan Opera’s 2008 production of Orfeo ed Euridice, which Morris directed.

For Morris, the creative contributions of his team is integral to the production.

“Adrianne has drawn the germ of her designs from her own plein air paintings of recent years,” says Morris of the sets for the opera. “A verdant, lush and deep setting for this wonderful love story.

Isaac has taken the pattern for the printed fabrics from Adrianne’s work to make a consonant whole. The singers are in semi-casual clothes, the dancers in skirts and gowns.

Light and fluid. Michael Chyboski, the final member of our team, is a brilliant lighting designer. Without him there’s nothing to see.” [x] Mark morris Dance Group

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CULTURE Visual Arts STORY Loren King

Every Stitch Tells a Story Collector couple Gerald Roy and Paul Pilgrim share world-class quilt collection at the MFA When the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opened “Quilts and Color: The Pilgrim/ Roy Collection,” it unveiled a love story.

The display of 59 stunning antique quilts, up through July 27, is a look at Gerald Roy and Paul Pilgrim’s passion for collecting. The couple’s sharp eye for quilts that boasted sophisticated use color and design led them to amass an impressive collection of about 1,500 examples.

The show is also the story of Roy and Pilgrim’s 50-year relationship that began when both were students at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, continued to Mills College where each earned his MFA, and then to the San Francisco Bay Area where both taught art in the public schools and where they eventually opened two galleries, the first in 1971 and the second 10 years later. When Pilgrim died in 1996, Roy, a native of Worcester, returned to New England. Now 74, and still an active collector and lecturer, Roy

lives in a small town outside Concord, New Hampshire, with a restored barn that houses the collection, considered one of the finest in the world.

It was there that the MFA’s Lauren Whitley, Pamela Parmal and Jennifer Swope, curators of textile and fashion arts at the museum, culled through the Roy/Pilgrim collection and selected 59 distinctive examples of boldly colorful quilts that frequently echo the work of mid-20th century abstract artists.

“Pam, Laura and Jennifer worked closely with me. We put aside 370 quilts and kept narrowing them down,” says Roy. “Each time one was taken away, it was a knife in my heart. You want to show it all. They used to laugh at me because every time I brought a new quilt out, I’d say, ‘This is my favorite.’ Fifty years crossed my mind in a matter of seconds. Each one has a personal story.”

[ABOVE] Carpenter’s Wheel Quilt. Attributed to: Mrs. Miller (American).

Pilgrim / Roy Collection. Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

74 | BOSTON SPIRIT

The show organizes the quilts by theme based on color theory, such as “Vibrations,” “Contrasts” and “Variations,” and shows how these quilters — anonymous women from diverse communities across the country — used color and design in the same way that painters used a canvas.

“Log Cabin, Barn Raising Variation,” a 1879 quilt attributed to a Mrs. Herrick and one of the first that Roy and Pilgrim collected, is in the “Gradations” section.

Roy, who will give a gallery talk about the exhibit on May 22 and 29, 6:30–8 pm, explained that the quilt was made 84 years before the influential teachings of color theorist Josef Albers and the Bauhaus school in Germany, a group that emphasized the merging of fine art and craft.

Roy had studied Albers while attending The School of the Worcester Art Museum from 1959 to 1962.

“Paul and I responded to these quilts as works of art. The historical aspect was not as important as the visuals,” says Roy. “When we found the Herrick quilt ... we looked at that quilt and it had nothing to do with staying warm. It was so extraordinarily designed; the craftsmanship was

[ABOVE] Log Cabin, Barn Raising Variation Quilt. Attributed to: Mrs. Herrick (American).

Pilgrim / Roy Collection, Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

there, too, but it was the understanding of the interaction of color — the things we went to school for. It opened our eyes.

That quilt started it all.”

“Many of the quilts exhibit colors that throughout history you wouldn’t have been able to decorate around, so as a result many were never used,” he continues.

“Families inherited them and kept them but more than one time, after purchasing a quilt, a family member would say, ‘This was called the ugly quilt.’ It would have oranges and yellows and pinks together, which is what I love, but most people would not think about putting that on a bed. It’s too much.”

Roy promises that visitors to the MFA’s Gund Gallery will be amazed. “This is the exhibit I have wanted to do my whole life.

This explores quilts that even 150 years ago were working with abstract form and shape and color; ... many of the quilt-makers through their own intuitive natures and gifts and creativity, were producing works of art that didn’t come to the fore until well after Abstract Expressionism.

The fact is that women’s work has never been considered art.”

“ These are my children ” Gerlad Roy

Gerald Roy Because the show is the fulfillment of a dream and represents nearly a lifetime of collecting, Roy said he told the exhibit organizers that he would need about an hour alone in the gallery before the show opened to the public.

“These are my children,” he says. “Paul will be there along with those makers, just smiling their heads off. ... This is about the work and the gifted people who created [the quilts]. What would they think, seeing

their works on the walls of the MFA? They’d be stunned. That’s what it’s about.

We were fortunate enough to be stewards for a while.” [x] Quilts and Color: The Pilgrim/Roy Collection

Boston Museum of Fine Arts April 6–July 27, 2014 www.mfa.org.

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CULTURE Film STORY Loren King

Another feature with good advance buzz is Yves Saint

Pleasures of the Dark At the Provincetown International Film Festival, the movies are good enough to make you leave the beach Few regional film events rival the Provincetown International Film Festival: its eclectic lineup of thoughtfully curated films and A-list guests makes it a killer film festival and—oh yes, it’s set in the middle of beaches, bars, and shopping— all with an unparalleled gay-friendly atmosphere.

In fact, the sumptuous setting would make it hard to leave the outdoors if the film programming weren’t so good. For the 16th PIFF, running June 17-23, Artistic Director Connie White and the PIFF programming team have again assembled a lineup that boasts new releases, sneak peeks and plenty of gay content. Although much of the program was still being finalized by press time, White could confirm several notable events and films.

David Cronenberg is this year’s Filmmaker on the Edge, the annual award that in years past has brought stellar

76 | BOSTON SPIRIT

moviemakers (John Waters, Darren Aronofsky, Gus Van Sant, Todd Haynes and Christine Vachon, among them) to the tip of the Cape. Waters will present the award to Cronenberg, a modern master of horror with films such as Videodrome, The Fly and Dead Ringers, at a special ceremony during the fest. Fittingly, the PIFF will host a Cronenberg double bill of Videodrome and The Fly on Thursday, June 19 at the Wellfleet Drive-in. In addition to the drive-in screenings, Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch will be added to the festival program as a tribute.

PIFF will be the place to get a look at the much buzzed-about Love is Strange, which was a hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Ira Sachs follows up his critically lauded films Forty Shades of Blue and Keep the Lights On with this heartfelt dramedy about a gay couple, George (Alfred Molina) and Ben (John Lithgow)

Laurent, a biopic about the iconic gay fashion designer that showcases a terrific performance from Comedie francaise actor Pierre Niney as Saint Laurent who after 39 years together, finally tie the knot in an idyllic wedding ceremony in lower Manhattan. But when news of their marriage reaches the Catholic school where George works, he is fired from his longtime job, and the couple can no longer afford their New York City apartment. As a temporary solution, George moves in with the two gay cops next door, while Ben moves to Brooklyn to live with his nephew and his wife (played by Marisa Tomei) and their teenage son.

Two notable documentaries are also among this year’s must-see films. The Dog, recently featured in the Boston LGBT Film Festival, is an engaging look at New Yorker John Wojtowicz who became an iconic figure when Al Pacino played him in the 1975 classic Dog Day Afternoon, about the botched bank robbery Wojtowicz staged in order to pay for his transsexual lover’s sex change operation. Directors Alison Berg and Frank Keraudren draw on rich archival material from the gay

[OPPOSITE] Yves St. Laurent [ABOVE-LEFT] David Cronenberg, this

[ABOVE-RIGHT] Love Is Strange with Alfred

Molina and John Lithgow PHOTO Jeong Park

year’s Filmmaker on the Edge

[BELOW] Scene from The Dog

scene in New York in the early ‘70s as well as clips from the film juxtaposed with the real-life saga. It’s a compelling portrait of the lewd, funny, deluded and oddly sympathetic Wojtowicz in the years leading up to his death from cancer in 2006.

Even though most film-goers remember the surprise of Chris Sarandon appearing onscreen as Wojtowicz’s fragile lover

who tries to help police lure him out of the bank, it’s a real eye-opener to see the real players in this too-bizarre-to-be-fiction story. The footage of Wojtowicz at early meetings of the Gay Activists’ Alliance and his colorful anecdotes about his sexual exploits back in the day are priceless.

The PIFF will also screen the new HBO documentary The Case Against 8,

Ben Cotner and Ryan White’s film that examines the legal battle, ultimately successful, to overturn California’s same-sex marriage ban that passed in 2008.

Another feature with good advance buzz is Yves Saint Laurent, a biopic about the iconic gay fashion designer. Directed

by French actor-turned-director Jalil Lespert, the film is based on Laurence Benaim’s biography and showcases a terrific performance from Comedie francaise actor Pierre Niney as Saint Laurent. The film traces the life of the precocious talent, who took over from his mentor, Christian Dior, in 1957, when he was only 21. Saint Laurent’s partner, Pierre Berge, is played

by Guillaume Gallienne in an equally impressive performance. The Weinstein Company has already scooped up U.S. rights and will open the film later this year.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ classic A Hard Day’s Night, the festival will present a new restoration of the film. Directed by Richard Lester, A Hard Day’s Night was originally released in 1964 during the height of Beatlemania.

The black-and-white musical comedy was the iconic band’s first feature film and garnered numerous accolades, including two Academy Award® nominations. [x] Provincetown Film Festival

June 17-23, 2014 www.ptownfilmfest.org

MAY|JUN 2014 | 77

CULTURE Performance STORY Scott Kearnan

Monsoon Season

A ‘Drag Race’ winner dominates the Provincetown Art House this summer Every season, RuPaul’s Drag Race promises to crown “America’s Next Drag Superstar.” And for the most part, it works. Winners (and even many eliminated contestants) can build a career off the bevy of gay bars across the country that suddenly start nipping at their glittery high heels with booking offers. But when Jinkx Monsoon sashayed away as the winner of Season Five, she went down a slightly different path: One that takes her to Provincetown from June 27 through September 20, when

her hit cabaret The Vaudevillians takes over The Art House. (Tickets start at $30 at ptownarthouse.com) You see, while Monsoon might still host the occasional gay club fete, she’s largely dedicated her post-Drag Race career to the theater. Jerick Hoffer, as Jinkx is known when the fake eyelashes come off, is an arts school alumnus who has starred in shows like Spring Awakening, Rent, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch back in his native Seattle. So Hoffer chose to use his hotoff-TV buzz to bring new life and bigger audiences to The Vaudevillians, a two-person show created with collaborator Major Scales (a.k.a. actor pal

78 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Richard Andriessen) back in their college days. In the show, Hoffer plays Jinkx Monsoon playing Kitty Witless (you follow?) a 1920’s Vaudeville starlet who returns to the stage with her piano-man husband, Dr. Von Dandy, after being thawed out from an avalanche.

The anachronistic antics that follow include madcap banter, song and dance, with the duo retooling modern hits—from Madonna’s “Music” to ABBA’s “Take a Chance”—as ragtime numbers fit for jazz hands and dancing The Charleston. It’s comedic and it’s camp, but it’s not shtick; the sharp writing and strong singing are as good as cabaret gets. Last year the show’s off-Broadway run was extended five times amid sellout crowds and rave reviews.

The duo then took it on a road, most recently on an Australian tour.

The success is especially sweet since Monsoon was a Drag Race underdog whose performance style—clownish, bohemian and vaguely vintage—wasn’t always appreciated by the girly “girls” in sequined bodysuits. We took some time to chat with the star before she races ahead with her P’town engagement.

[SPIRIT] Have you had the chance to spend much time in Provincetown before?

[JINKX MONSOON] Actually, the only time I’ve been to Provincetown was last summer.

I had two gigs: a “Save the Whales” gig and a White Party or something. Well, not a White Party. Just a big gay party, and Logo hired me to be there. I

didn’t have to perform. I just had to walk around. And that’s when my job started to feel surreal: When I was getting hired to walk around places.

[SPIRIT] As a performer, are you excited to be part of the theatrical history here? We’re America’s oldest arts colony!

[JINKX ] Oh, I’ve been hearing

about the summer season in Provincetown for so long.

I have a ton of friends in Seattle—like Dina Martina, the Atomic Bombshells Burlesque—who work in Provincetown every year and tell me about how wonderful it is. But it wasn’t until I was there for myself last year that I understood. I had only been there collectively for five days, but I loved it immediately. I went right to my manager and said, “I want to do a season there.” And the next thing I know, we’re at the Art House.

[SPIRIT] How do you feel about the huge off-Broadway success of The Vaudevillians?

[JINKX ] It was great. It was

kind of validating. We’ve been working on the show since college and we never really saw it going this far this quickly; I thought it was years down the road. But Drag Race sped everything up and inspired us to give it our all and utilize this opportunity, the buzz that it generates, to the best of our ability. We didn’t have to spend time writing the show.

We reworked bits of it. But since it was ready to go and we could jump in right away.

[SPIRIT] On the show, some of the queens didn’t understand your style. Do they “get it” now?

[JINKX ] Yeah. We performed

the show on the Drag Race cruise. A lot of the other girls have come to see it; Michelle

Visage and RuPaul both saw it. I feel like if anyone had any question of why I do what I do, and what I truly consider my trade and my contribution to the drag world, after they saw The Vaudevillians they 100-percent understood it.

Now, my fashion sense will always be a topic of discussion.

[Laughs] But I’ve embraced it!

[SPIRIT] Is there anything you learned on Drag Race that has since helped you as a performer?

[JINKX ] Definitely. I think the

show taught me to not be so stubborn and set in your own ways that you’re not open to evolving and taking things up a notch. I was very confident in what I was already doing when I started Drag Race, but it was because of Drag Race that I saw opportunities to grow and adapt what I was doing to take it up to the next level. It’s all about learning how to make the best of what you’ve got. Don’t stop halfway! Whether it’s a joke or a performance, you have to go for it 100 percent. No excuses. Really, that’s what Drag Race taught me.

[SPIRIT] Were there a lot of

surprised Drag Race fans that wandered in The Vaudevillians not realizing what was in store?

[JINKX ] Oh yeah—especially

early on, at the start of the show’s run. The show was sold out weeks before we even got to New York, before anyone had even seen it, and what that told me was that people were just trying to see the winner of Drag Race. They probably had little idea what the show was. So for the first few weeks it was really Drag Race fanatics, and I think they definitely walked in expecting one thing and left having seen something else.

But I never heard a complaint.

They weren’t disappointed, because they wouldn’t have known that this was what they wanted until we gave it to them. The general thing people told me was, “That wasn’t what I thought I wanted, but I’m really happy that I got it.”

[SPIRIT] The cultural references in The Vaudevillians are such a wide mix. High, low, mainstream, obscure. It’s probably the only show that has a song inspired by Britney Spears’ “Toxic” followed by a song

I’d benefited from seeing Grey Gardens and learning about that legacy. Maybe I’ve shared it with a generation of kids who never heard of Little Edie, and now they’ll watch it. I feel that’s a little bit of my duty. Drag queens preserve a certain part of our community that is special. There are a lot of drag queens that only focus on the current stuff, but a lot of drag queens focus on parts of our community that would otherwise probably

Vaudevillians2_WilsonModels.JPG

inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House.” Do you feel like some of the iconic gay references are lost on certain younger audiences?

[JINKX ] I found that out with

Little Edie. [Editor’s note: One of Monsoon’s most popular performances on Drag Race was an impersonation of Grey Gardens’ Little Edie.] Half the people in the room with me had no idea who she was.

Now, in no way do I assume she’s a big enough pop icon that people should know who she is; she’s kind of fabulous because of the cult status.

And I didn’t get uppity like, “Everyone should know who she is and if you don’t know, you’re not gay!” [Laughs] But

get lost in the years.

[SPIRIT] What’s your favorite song in

The Vaudevillians to perform? And is there one that feels the hardest?

[JINKX ] I always love doing

“I Will Survive.” I wait the whole night for that number.

One song I used to love doing was our “Gimme Dat” medley, our mash-up song. But not when I’m doing it almost every night on tour. Doing that every night can get really exhausting and there’s a moment where I’m basically seeing spots while I’m dancing around. [Laughs] I call it my medicationmoment. [x]

MAY|JUN 2014 | 79

SCENE Boston Spirit Signature Event

Boston Spirit Executive Breakfast Series Royal Sonesta | Cambridge, MA | April 9

Boston Spirit magazine partnered with the Boston Red Sox and the New England Human Resources Association for an executive Breakfast on the topic of ‘Using the Strength of Diversity to Help Build a Championship Winning Team’. The event was held on April 9th at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge with guest speakers, Dr. Charles Steinberg, Executive Vice President, Boston Red Sox, Amy Waryas, Vice President, Boston Red Sox and Kim Dukes Rivers, CEO, Diversity Staffing Pros Kim Dukes Rivers, CEO, Diversity Staffing Pros, Dr. Charles Steinberg, Executive Vice President, Boston Red Sox and Amy Waryas, Vice President, Boston Red Sox

Discounted rate for foursomes!

Join Us! 2nd Annual DRIVE FOR VICTORY GOLF TOURNAMENT Monday, June 16 Shotgun Start 7:30am Granite Links | Quincy

www.vpi.org (617) 541-0222

2014

SCENE Celebration PHOTOS Courtesy Committee To Elect Josh Zakim

SCENE Pride PHOTOS Courtesy Boston Pride Committee

5th Annual LGBT & Allies St. Patrick’s Day Celebration

Boston Pride Open House

Stella’s Restaurant | Boston | March 17

Politicos gathered to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in an LGBT supportive atmosphere.

SCENE Benefit PHOTOS Courtesy of Community Servings

Mustachio Bashio

O’Neill & Associates | Boston | March 20

Boston Pride announced this year’s theme; “Be Yourself, Change the World.” Boston Pride Week 2014 will be held from June 6 through 15. Boston Pride also recognized the winners of the 2013 Parade who best exemplified last year’s theme “Moving Forward … Proud, Strong, United”: Best Marching Group: Boston’s Children Hospital; Best Adaptation of Theme: Eastern Bank; Best Float: Trip Advisor.

2013 Best Marching Group: Boston’s Children Hospital accepting their award from Boston Pride President, Sylvain Bruni.

City Table in the Lenox Hotel | Boston | April 1

Community Servings held its annual Mustachio Bashio event, raising funds to provide meals to people in need.

“The Hat Sisters”

Rob Wilson, Sergio Mazon, Mark Faucher

Long time supporters of Community Servings, Gary and Lynne Smith

Michael Anthony Fowler, Boston Pride President Sylvain Bruni, Boston Pride Vice President Linda DeMarco and Boston Pride Committee Member Anna Dubrowski.

2013 Best Adaptation of Theme: Eastern Bank accepting their award from Boston Pride President Sylvain Bruni MAY|JUN 2014 | 81

SCENE Benefit PHOTOS Marilyn Humphries

Invest in a future without cancer.

Include Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund in your estate plans, and help support cutting-edge research and compassionate patient care, while reaching your financial goals.

Pride and Passion Gala and Auction Seaport World Trade Center | Boston | April 3

Greater Boston PFLAG held its annual fundraiser. Attracting over 500 attendees, the event was co-chaired by Stanley N. Griffith, Chair Emeritus of Greater Boston PFLAG, Sarah C. Libbey, Executive at Fidelity Investments, and Holly Safford, Founder and President of The Catered Affair. With Honorary Co-Chairs Rufus Gifford, Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark and past Pride and Passion Honoree, and his partner Dr. Stephen DeVincent, the event honored Joanne Jaxtimer, BNY Mellon Regional Executive. The event also featured the culinary talents of Rialto’s Jody Adams, Cuisine Chair of the event, alongside numerous prominent Boston restaurants. Greater Boston PFLAG also presented Elsie Frank Scholarship Awards to high school students whose actions have advanced greater support and acceptance of LGBTQ youth in their schools.

Learn more: Alice Tobin Zaff, Director of Gift Planning 800-535-5577 • Alice_Zaff@dfci.harvard.edu

Dana-Farber.org/spirit

82 | BOSTON SPIRIT

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SCENE Benefit PHOTOS courtesy GLBTQ DVP

SCENE Benefit PHOTOS Mary Prince Photography

GLBTQ Domestic Violence Project Winter Plunge Boston Harbor | Boston | February 23

A group of drag queens and friends plunged into the icy cold waters of Boston Harbor in order to raise funds for the GLBTQ Domestic Violence Project (GLBTQ DVP). It also raised awareness about domestic violence in gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) communities. “It’s a learning process for everyone involved,” saai Curt Rogers, the Executive Director. “As plungers spend weeks raising money for the organization they are also starting conversations with their friends, families, and coworkers about the prevalence of domestic violence and barriers GLBTQ people face in accessing services.”

Gibson House Annual Gala Algonquin Club | Boston | March 20

Enjoying the Gibson House Museum’s annual benefit at the Algonquin Club on March 20, 2014: Robert B. Dimmick, auctioneer; Craig Hughes, Martha Stone, Harvard Gay/Lesbian Review; Andrew Elder, History Project; Ann Petruccelli, and Jeremy Fox, Boston Globe.

SCENE Networking PHOTOS courtesy Pride In Our Workplace

Pride in Our Workplace Stephi’s | South Boston | February 26

On February 26 more than 150 members of the Pride In Our Workplace networking group gathered in Southie for an evening of socializing and networking. The event also featured great food, courtesy of Stephi’s and delicious drinks from Silo Vodka.

84 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Carnival 2014

SCENE Fundraiser PHOTOS Kara Kochalko for Point Foundation

7th Annual Boston Cornerstone Point Foundation Gala Mandarin Oriental Hotel | Boston | March 6 1

Comic Book Carnival 2014 Carnival 2014 Carnival 2014 Capers Comic ComicBook Book Comic AugustBook 16-22 Capers Capers Capers Carnival 2014 August 16-22

August 16-22 August 16-22 Carnival 2014 Comic Book

Point Foundation is the nation’s largest scholarship-granting organization for LGBTQ students. It currently sponsors and supports nine students in the greater Boston area. Over 150 people attended this fundraising event, raising over $108,000.

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PBG presents, in association with Adam Weinstock and Creative Concept PBG presents, PBG presents, PBG presents, association with AugustinProduction 16-22 in association with in association with and Adam Weinstock Adam Weinstock Adam Weinstock and and Creative Concept Creative Concept Grand Marshall Creative Concept Production Production Production

CAROLINE CAROLINE RHEA CAROLINE CAROLINE

PBG presents, in association with Grand Marshall Adam Weinstock and PBG presents, Grand Marshall Grand Marshall Creative Concept in association with Adam Weinstock and Production Creative Concept Production Grand Marshall

RHEA RHEA RHEA CAROLINE

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Comic Book Capers Capers August 16-22

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CAROLINE RHEA RHEA

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Aunt Hilda on The WB’s sitcom “Sabrina, The Teenage Witch”, starring in Lifetime’s “Fat Like Me,” and hosting NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.”

SCENE Business PHOTOS Emil Cohen

Boston Spirit 2014 LGBT Executive Networking Night Boston Marriott Copley Place | Boston | April 17

Another successful assembly of local close to 1,000 LGBT business people and their companies. Paula Poundstone kept people laughing in the aisles!

86 | BOSTON SPIRIT

MAY|JUN 2014 | 87

MUSIC Tegan and Sara

ONGOING THRU SUN MAY 25

BOSTON | CITY HALL PLAZA

The out twin sisters, indiepop singer-songwriters and recent GLAAD Media Award winners make a Boston stop on their “Let's Get Physical” tour to help close out “Boston Calling,” a three-day music festival at City Hall Plaza.

EDITOR'S PICK

Calendar

General Calendar | PAGE 88 Boston Pride Calendar | PAGE 89 Pride Beyond Boston Calendar | PAGE 89

COMMUNITY EDITOR'S PICK

29th Annual AIDS Walk & Run

SUN JUN 1

BOSTON | BOSTON'S ESPLANADE

AIDS Action Committee’s largest annual fundraiser, the AIDS Walk & 5K Run begins and ends at the DCR Hatch Memorial Shell on Boston’s Charles River Esplanade.

Registration and check-in begins at 7:30 a.m. The Walk is 6.2 miles. The 5K Run is a competitive, timed event fully sanctioned by the USA Track & Field Association. WCVBTV newscaster Randy Price will emcee the event, which includes a Wellness Festival, a post-walk celebration of healthy living. aac.org/dance

Men’s Body-MindWorldFest Spirit Summer Camp SAT JUN 7

PROVINCETOWN

FRI JUL 11

NEWFANE, NY | FROG MEADOW

A fun-filled four-day gay men’s Summer Camp at New England’s only country bed and breakfast and massage oasis exclusively for men.

The retreat features an array of wellness activities while fostering self-expression and camaraderie.

FESTIVAL 18th Annual

Composer John Thomas discovered how many international workers are also accomplished painters and musicians. He created WorldFest to honor them.

Art openings and concerts, with talent like vocalist Darya Yanitskaya, show the artistic depth of people who are in restaurant kitchens and filling your bags at the Stop & Shop. facebook.com/worldfestptown

Mother’s Day Walk for Peace

SUN MAY 11

BOSTON | TOWN FIELD PARK

The Mother’s Day Walk for Peace began in 1996 for families who had lost their children to violence. Today it is a place for families and friends to feel support and love with thousands of others who pledge their commitment to peace and support the work of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute.

Visit our online calendar for the latest events and submit listings for upcoming events: BostonSpiritMagazine.com

Tegan and Sara, Sunday, May 25—part of the “Boston Calling,” a three-day music festival at Boston City Hall Plaza

Vermont Bear Film Festival

THU AUG 21

GUILFORD, VERMONT

The Vermont Bear Film Festival is an independent film festival devoted to bears and bear admirers. Held in the green hills of southern Vermont, it is an occasion for guys to eat, drink and see some great films too.

Provincetown International Film Festival

WED JUN 18

PROVINCETOWN

PIFF expands to a full week in its 16th year. Coined the “New Sundance”, PIFF is renowned for its brave curatorial choices with categories ranging from GLBT, Cape Cod filmmakers’ shorts and remarkable cinema from around the globe.

FUNDRAISER SMFA Medal Award Gala Honoring Sarah Sze

MON MAY 19

BOSTON | MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS/BOSTON

The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s (SMFA) Medal is awarded annually to individuals who have made a significant and lasting impact on the art world. SMFA will honor contemporary artist Sarah Sze. Sze, who represented the United States at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, creates sculptural installations that explore and question the ever-growing accumulation of objects and information in today’s society.

Museum of Fine Arts/Boston | mfa.org

Coro Allegro presents ‘Baroque Gems’

SUN JUN 1

BOSTON | CORO ALLEGRO

Boston's acclaimed classical chorus for members, friends and allies of the LGBT community presents this season finale of rare and timeless Baroque-era gems by composers like Isabella Leonarda and Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Dixit Dominus.

Coro Allegro | coroallegro.org

SOCIALIZING Second Saturday: Konocopia

SAT MAY 10

BOSTON | MACHINE

A spirited dance and music event honoring the life of Kris Kono, beloved Boston DJ and co-founder of Second Saturday. Kris lost her life to cancer, and this year’s Konocopia fundraiser will support research at Dana Farber via Team Konocopia in the PanMass Challenge. There will be 11 DJs on two floors and three dance floors, a silent auction and 50/50 raffle. Tickets available in advance and at the door.

Dyke Night | dykenight.com

Paint Out Loud

THU MAY 15

SALEM, MA | GO OUT LOUD

Join Wicked Art Bar and Go Out Loud, the North Shore's LGBT events and networking business, for a special OUT LOUD night of painting and sipping. Recreate “The Boston Skyline” with suppled paints, apron, brushes and a 16x20 canvas. This is an instructor-led painting class—part technique, part fun—no experience required.

There will be music, door prizes and fabulous company.

Go Out Loud | gooutloud.com

BOSTON PRIDE

Boston Pride Parade

SAT JUN 7

The annual Boston Pride Parade starts at Boylston and Clarendon streets, dozens of colorful floats winding their way to City Hall.

Boston Pride | bostonpride.org

Vendors, entertainment, music and more as Boston Pride Week continues.

Boston Pride | bostonpride.org

BOSTON

Pride Queeraoke

THU JUN 12

BOSTON | MIDWAY CAFE

A special Boston Pride edition of Queeraoke, with proceeds benefiting the Pride committee.

Boston Pride | bostonpride.org

Pride Night at Fenway Park

THU JUN 12

BOSTON | FENWAY PARK

On the Verge

ONGOING THRU SUN MAY 25

WED JUN 25

Three Victorian-era women set off to explore “Terra Incognita,” not realizing that they have time traveled into 1955 American pop culture.

Central Square Theater | centralsquaretheater.org

Go Out Loud Pride Party SALEM, MA | VICTORIA'S STATION

Celebrate North Shore Pride with Go Out Loud, the region's LGBT events and social networking crew. Drink and dance to tunes from DJ Andrea.

Go Out Loud | gooutloud.com

CAMBRIDGE | CENTRAL SQUARE THEATER

EDITOR'S PICK

Carrie: The Musical

THEATER I Puritani

FRI MAY 9 - SAT JUN 7

BOSTON | SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY

ONGOING THRU SUN MAY 11

BOSTON , MA | BOSTON LYRIC OPERA

Elvira has been promised to one man, but loves another. When she believes the object of her affection has betrayed her, she descends into madness.

Boston Lyric Opera | blo.org

Motown the Musical

ONGOING THRU MON DEC 15

BOSTON | BOSTON OPERA HOUSE

The true American dream story of Motown founder Berry Gordy’s journey from featherweight boxer to the heavyweight music mogul who launched the careers of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson and many more.

Broadway In Boston | broadwayinboston.com

From the classic Stephen King novel comes the haunting story of a highschool outcast.

SpeakEasy Stage Company | SpeakEasyStage.com

Into the Woods

FRI MAY 9 - SAT JUN 7

BOSTON | LYRIC STAGE

A baker and his Wife learn they've been cursed by the Witch next door, then embark into the woods on a quest to reverse that spell.

Lyric Stage, 140 Clarendon St, Boston 02116, 617-585-5678, | lyricstage.com

The Tempest

SAT MAY 10 - SUN JUN 15

CAMBRIDGE, MA | AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER

When shipwrecked aristocrats wash up on the shores of Prospero’s strange island, they find themselves immersed in a world of trickery and amazement.

American Repertory Theater | americanrepertorytheater.org

[CONTINUES 92] 90 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Boston Pride Festival

SAT JUN 14

BOSTON | CITY HALL PLAZA

The annual extravaganza of vendors, food and live entertainment – headlined by “Same Love” singer Mary Lambert – takes over City Hall Plaza. For the full lineup of Boston Pride events.

Boston Pride | bostonpride.org

Back Bay Block Party

SUN JUN 15

| BOSTON PRIDE

SUN JUN 15

SUN JUN 15

To celebrate Father’s Day and Gay Pride, the South End restaurant hosts a special Father’s Day devoted to gay dads, with a la carte dinner specials, live music from “queens of soul,” and special themed food and drink specials throughout the night.

No cover. beehiveboston.com

Boston Pride’s big blowout: the annual JP block party with drinking, dancing and DJs. For the full lineup of Boston Pride events.

Boston Pride | bostonpride.org

BOSTON | THE BEEHIVE

EDITOR'S PICK

BOSTON | FANEUIL HALL

Pride Week continues with this special outing to Fenway Park for the Indians vs. Red Sox game. A portion of ticket proceeds benefit the Pride committee. redsox.com/pride

Gay Father’s Day

[FROM 88]

Pride Day at Faneuil Hall

SAT JUN 14

Boston Pride Flag Raising

FRI JUN 6

BOSTON | CITY HALL PLAZA

Boston Pride Week kicks off with a raising of the flag on City Hall Plaza.

Boston Pride | bostonpride.org

Boston Pride’s big blowout: the annual Back Bay block party with drinking, dancing and DJs. For the full lineup of Boston Pride events.

Boston Pride | bostonpride.org

JP Block Party

JAMAICA PLAIN | PERKINS ST

LGBT Senior Pride Tea Dance

SUN JUN 8

BOSTON | HOLIDAY INN

Boston Pride Week continues with a Tea Dance for seniors hosted by the LGBT Senior Pride Coalition.

LGBT Senior Pride Coalition |

PRIDE BEYOND BOSTON

Paint Out Loud

THU MAY 15

SALEM | WICKED ART BAR

Join Wicked Art Bar and Go Out Loud, the North Shore’s LGBT events and networking business, for a special OUT LOUD night of painting and sipping. Recreate “The Boston Skyline” with suppled paints, apron, brushes and a 16x20 canvas. There will be music, door prizes and fabulous company.

Go Out Loud | gooutloud.com

North Shore Pride Parade and Festival

SAT JUN 21

SALEM, MA | MURPHY’S PUB

The parade kicks off from the Post Office at noon and makes its way to Salem Common, where the festival will take place from 1-5pm. The festival will feature a fabulous variety of music and dance, as well as local food and goods vendors.

North Shore Pride | northshorepride.org

Official North Shore Pride After-Party

SAT JUN 21

SALEM, MA | MURPHY’S PUB

Don’t stop celebrating when the festival is over! 4–10 pm, free.

Nosrth Shore Pride | northshorepride. org/events

Go Out Loud Pride Cruise

SAT JUN 21

| GO OUT LOUD

Sail Salem Harbor with Go Out Loud, the North Shore's LGBT events and networking crew. VIP tickets include admittance to an after-party.

Go Out Loud | gooutloud.com

Go Out Loud Pride Party

WED JUN 25

SALEM, MA | VICTORIA'S STATION

Celebrate North Shore Pride with Go Out Loud, the region's LGBT events and social networking crew.

Drink and dance to tunes from DJ Andrea.

Go Out Loud | gooutloud.com

TRADE CE NTER HE WORLD PROVINC ETOWN II AT T

6:30 – 8:30P

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ALL PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT

SUMMER VISIT BOSTONSPIRITMAGAZINE.COM FOR TICKETS

SUNSET CRUISE

At the Peabody Essex Museuam through July 6, California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way

Your Source for Equalityminded People, Places, Services and Adventures in New England and beyond.

[FROM 90]

32nd Annual Elliot Norton Awards and Party

MON MAY 19

BOSTON | WHEELOCK FAMILY THEATRE

The Elliot Norton Awards are presented annually by The Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) (Don Aucoin, Jared Bowen, Terry Byrne, Carolyn Clay, Nick Dussault, Iris Fanger, Joyce Kulhawik, Kilian Melloy, Bob Nesti, and Ed Siegel) to honor the outstanding productions, directors, designers, and performers audiences see on Greater Boston stages all year long..

Smart People

EDITOR'S PICK

Beyond Human, ArtistAnimal Collaborations

ONGOING THRU SUN SEP 7

SALEM, MA | PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM The redesigned Art & Nature Center opens in October. Elephants paint pictures, dogs pose for photographs and birds create art installations.

Peabody Essex Museum | pem.org

California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way

ONGOING THRU SUN JUL 6

SALEM, MA | PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM

FRI MAY 23 - SAT JUN 21

BOSTON | HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY

Four Harvard intellectuals—a doctor, an actress, a psychologist, and a neurobiologist studying the human brain’s response to race – search for love, success, and identity in a complex world.

Huntington Theatre Company | huntingtontheatre.org/

The Phantom of the Opera

THU JUN 26 - SUN JUL 20

BOSTON | BOSTON OPERA HOUSE

Cameron Mackintosh's spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's classic.

Broadway In Boston | broadwayinboston.com

VISUAL ARTS

American Gestures: Abstract Expressionism

More than 200 examples of midcentury modern design reveal the distinctive role California had in shaping material culture from 19301965.

Peabody Essex Museum | pem.org

 BEAUTY | BODY

Beauty Medicine Boston

Botox®, Dermal Fillers & Skin Therapies Rejuvenate yourself with state of the art cosmetic injections and advanced skin therapies and treatments, including: Botox®.

Juvederm®, Radiesse®, Belotero® and Ultherapy. Personalized, artistic and compassionate skin care administered by Advanced Practice Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, Nelson Aquino. Two convenient locations: Office of Joseph Russo, MD, FACS: 575 Boylston Street Newton Centre, MA 02459 and

EDITOR'S PICK

1318 Beacon Street, Ste. 7 (2nd floor) Brookline, MA 617.953.6261 http://www.beautymedicineboston.com

ONGOING THRU MON MAY 26

Elizabeth Grady

Think Pink

BOSTON | MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS/BOSTON

Explore the changing meaning of pink in art and fashion.

Museum of Fine Arts/Boston | mfa.org

Turner & the Sea

SAT MAY 31 - MON SEP 1

SALEM, MA | PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM First full-scale examination of Joseph Mallord William Turner's lifelong preoccupation with the sea.

Peabody Essex Museum | pem.org

Because the world sees your face first Elizabeth Grady provides an innovative approach to beauty and skin health through our products, services, schools and franchises. The expertly trained estheticians, massage therapists and make-up artists at our many locations will prescribe the worlds best face care products and treatments that are right for you. At the Elizabeth Grady Schools, we also educate and nurture the next generation of highly-qualified professionals.

1-800-FACIALS www.elizabethgrady.com www.elizabethgrady.edu

Seligman Dental Designs

ONGOING THRU SUN JUN 1

BOSTON | MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS/BOSTON

American art of the 1940s and ’50s was dominated by the gestural style known as Abstract Expressionism: in love with spontaneity and happy accidents.

Museum of Fine Arts/Boston | mfa.org

For information on including your business, e-mail jd@BostonSpiritMagazine.com

Visit our online calendar for the latest events and submit listings for upcoming events: BostonSpiritMagazine.com

92 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Personalized dental care; healthy, beautiful smiles; comfortable, caring service in our state-of-the-art dental facility in the heart of the South End. It’s no secret that healthy teeth and a radiant smile can improve your appearance, your self-esteem and your overall health. Whether your goal is to restore your smile or maintain good oral health, you can benefit from Dr. James R. Seligman’s comprehensive approach to dental care.

617-451-0011 SouthEndDental.com

Wellspring Weight Loss

Your Weight. Your Life. Take Control.

The country’s largest and most respected network of weight loss programs, includes an adults-only residential facility with upscale amenities, state-of-the art facilities, and chef prepared meals.

W H E R E PAT I E N T S A R E FA M I LY .

or call us at 1-866-364-0808 wellspringweightloss.com

 COMMUNITY | NONPROFIT Planned Giving at DanaFarber Cancer Institute

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Invest in a future without cancer Include Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund in your estate plans to reach your financial goals and help fight cancer.

800-535-5577 Dana-Farber.org/spirit

 HOME | GARDEN Circle Furniture

FRIENDLY & EXPERIENCED STAFF

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Furniture ... Made for Real Life Circle Furniture offers an eclectic selection of furniture for traditional and contemporary homes, fast delivery times for made-to-order items, corporate philanthropy, support of the regional economy, and most of all, fun.

31 St. James Ave. Boston, MA 617-778-0887 www.circlefurniture.com

Dover Rug

STATE-OF-THE-ART, SOLAR POWERED DENTAL OFFICE

Cover

New Showroom Now Open Dover Rug & Home Dover Rug & Home offers the largest selection of fine floor coverings and window treatments in New England. Visit their BRAND NEW location at 721 Worcester Street in Natick (RT9) As the “Best of Boston Home 2011” recipient, their larger showroom has something for every budget. Natick, MA and Hanover, MA locations.

SPECIALIZING IN THE SAFEST & BEST NEW TECHNOLGIES DR. SAM MERABI

7 Brown Sq, Newburyport, MA 978-462-4590 PortsideFamilyDental.com

Portsidefamilydental

721 Worcester Street (Route 9) Natick, MA 508-651-3500 www.doverrug.com

DINING | NIGHTLIFE

Gardner Mattress

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Gardner Mattress Corporation A New England favorite for generations, Gardner Mattress has been manufacturing quality custom-sized, odd-sized and handmade mattresses in their Salem factory for over 70 years! Though their landmark location is North of Boston in Salem, they also service satisfied customers throughout New England. At Gardner Mattress, you’ll find mattresses including lace-tufted, layered latex, pocketed coil, quilted cotton and ivory plush, all handmade with natural materials. Located in Salem, Woburn and Newton, MA and Rye, NH. www.GardnerMattress.com

Lucia Lighting

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bright ideas begin at lucia Lucia Lighting & Design Our unique lighting store features 12 showrooms in 8,000 square feet of a lovingly restored mansion staffed with certified lighting specialists who are both educated and customer focused. Whether you want to visit our showroom or have one of our team visit you at your location in the Boston area, lucía lighting & design is the answer.

311 Western Ave. (RT-107 Lynn, MA 781-595-0026 www.lucialighting.com

MAY|JUN 2014 | 93

Seasons Four

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The Outdoor Living Store For over 40 years, Seasons Four has been a destination for everyone in New England that values outdoor spaces. We are a trusted source for quality, heirloom furniture for your sunroom, porch, patio, deck, and garden. We also provide unique plant material, statuary, fountains and garden accessories to complete your outdoor room.

1265 Massachusetts Avenue Lexington, MA 781-861-1200 seasonsfour.com

Yale Appliance & Lighting

 TRAVEL | ADVENTURE ArtBar

art + eat + retreat ArtBar is a warm, intimate retreat for food and art lovers located at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, MA. The ArtBar boasts stellar selections from the hotel's world-class art collection while the restaurant features innovative cuisine, a well curated wine list and seasonal specialty cocktails. Patio seating along the Charles River, with full bar service offer unparalleled riverside dining with views of the Boston Skyline.

Turn it On!!

Over 3500 lights, 800 appliances and 200 plumbing products on display. We service what we sell.

40 Edwin H. Land Boulevard Cambridge, MA 617-806-4122 artbarcambridge.com

296 Freeport St Dorchester, MA 1-866-849-7838 www.yaleappliance.com

Great Location. Great Amenities.

Boston Marriott Copley Place Located in the Back Bay and a few blocks from the South End, the Boston Marriott Copley Place is perfect for business or leisure travel. The hotel features deluxe rooms, Champions, Connexion Lounge, Starbucks, indoor pool, fitness center, 70,000 sq. ft. of meeting space and is minutes from top attractions.

 PROFESSIONAL | SERVICES

48 Burns & Levinson, LLP Burns & Levinson LLP, a leading mid-size law firm with a clientcentric culture, has over 125 attorneys in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia. We work with entrepreneurs, emerging businesses, private and public companies and individuals in sophisticated business transactions, litigation and private client services — family law, trusts & estates, marriage and divorce law.

617-345-3000 www.burnslev.com

Harvard University

Harvard University Careers If you can work, you can work at Harvard! We are so much more than just students and professors. We are the 5th largest private employer in Massachusetts, with over 16,000 employees. Almost any job you can think of exists at the University. employment.harvard.edu

UBS Financial Services, Inc.

Peter Hamilton Nee and Robert S. Edmunds UBS is proud to support Boston Spirit magazine, and salutes Fenway Health for their faithful service to our community.

Please contact us any time. Peter Hamilton Nee, AIF, CRPC, VP, Investments and Robert S. Edmunds, CFP, CRPC ubs.com/ team/neeedmunds.

Wellesley, MA 781-446-8918 or 800-828-0717 ubs.com/team/neeedmunds

 RETAIL | SHOPPING Lux Bond & Green

A family-run business since 1898, at Lux Bond & Green we’re known by the company we keep. Rolex, Panerai, Patek Philippe, Cartier, Tag Heuer, Baume & Mercier, Piaget, Mikimoto, David Yurman, John Hardy, and Hermés are just a few of the brands we carry. Our services include: Appraisals, Jewelry and Watch Repair, Custom Design, Wedding & Gift Registry and more. www.lbgreen.com

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Marriott Copley Place

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110 Huntington Avenue (Boston) , MA 617-236-5800 http://goo.gl/soiy38

Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston

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Spectacular city views, luxury accommodations, regional cuisine, and contemporary art All of our 400 well-appointed guest rooms and suites offer guests the comforts of home with first-class amenities and overlook the Charles River, Cambridge or Boston's stunning skyline. The Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston features both casual and elegant dining and delicious inspired cuisine in two highly acclaimed riverfront restaurants with seasonal patios, ArtBar and Restaurant Dante.

40 Edwin H. Land Boulevard Cambridge, MA 617-806-4200 www.sonesta.com/Boston/

 WEDDING | EVENTS

Accent Limousine

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LGBT Owned & Operated Accent Limousine & Car Service We provide professional transportation services throughout Greater Boston and the Metro-West. We grow our client base every year because we care for our clients as only a ‘Family’ business can. Our chauffeurs are professionally attired, knowledgeable, reliable, and friendly, and their professionalism and driving abilities will immediately earn your trust and confidence. We look forward to driving you on your next special occasion. www.accentlimo.com/spirit

TRAVEL | ADVENTURE

DJ Mocha

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Affordable great music for your party!

Boston Spirit’s official Cruise DJ for four years. Bringing, Great Music and Fun to your Events! All genres: pop, jazz, techno, world beat, swing, disco & more!

617-784-1663 MochaDJ.com

Gourmet Caterers

RELAX | RENEW | REFLECT

World-Class Luxury Guesthouse and Spa

Peace of mind. Now that’s a wedding vow.

This is a day when only perfection will do. GourmetCaterers’ attention to detail means peace of mind, so you can enjoy your wedding along with your guests. Whether your dream wedding is a large event or intimate affair, Gourmet’s team of innovative planners, chefs, stylists and servers will be by your side to ensure that everything is perfectly, uniquely, your own.

GourmetCaterers.com

Konditor Meister

Konditor Meister — Voted #1 Wedding Cakes in Boston Extraordinarily Beautiful & Elaborate Wedding Cakes & fine European pastries. Delicious Custom Holiday & Party Cakes for all occasions.

32 Wood Road (Just South of Boston) Braintree, MA 781-849-1970 KonditorMeister.com

Lombardo’s

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Lombardo’s has been providing the highest quality of hospitality and cuisine for over 50 years. From innovative menus to an upscale atmosphere, Lombardo’s ensures every wedding will exceed their client’s expectations.

781-986-5000 www.lombardos.com

14 Johnson Street, Provincetown | 800.487.0132

Long's Jewelers

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Your Source for Diamonds, Wedding Rings, Fine Jewelry & Watches Long's Jewelers has been in the business of happy moments since 1878. We're honored to help our customers celebrate milestones like engagements, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and retirements and not to mention "just because" moments!

Whether you're looking for diamonds, wedding rings, fine jewelry, Swiss watches, awards, or corporate gifts, Long's has you covered.

www.carpediemguesthouse.com

a h c o M J D

Boston, Braintree, Burlington, Natick, and Peabody, MA 877-845-6647 www.longsjewelers.com

Ptown Parties

Catering | Events The premier caterer on the lower cape, Ptown Parties is a full service catering and event planning company. Let them cater your next cocktail party, clambake or wedding, in your home, inn, rental condo or yacht. Let Ptown Parties take care of all the hassles, so you can enjoy a carefree day in Provincetown, and a great party that night!

508-487-6450 Ptownparties.com

high impact | low proole photo and video documentation

LET’S DANCE! www.mochadj.com

For information on including your business, e-mail jd@BostonSpiritMagazine.com

MAY|JUN 2014 | 95

CODA Music STORY Scott Kearnan

Hail Mary The lesbian ‘Same Love’ singer headlines Boston Pride 2014 Given that Massachusetts is celebrating its 10-year anniversary of same-sex marriage, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting Boston Pride headliner than Mary Lambert.

(She’ll command the stage at the Festival on City Hall Plaza on Saturday, June 14.) After all, the out artist had a special role in the music industry’s most high-profile wedding this year: a 2014 Grammy Awards performance of “Same Love,” her equal rights hit with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, that culminated in a mass matrimony for three dozen diverse straight and gay couples. From the Massachusetts State House to the prime time stage, what a difference a decade makes!

Meanwhile, Mary Lambert is in the middle of her own major evolution: from Seattle-based singer-songwriter to marquee performer with a new national platform. She recently released her first major label EP, Welcome to the Age of My Body, and is in the midst of recording her full-length album for release later this year. But as she prepared for Pride, Lambert gave us a call to say why she loves Boston, the beauty of (and backlash to) “Same Love,” and launching a body image revolution.

[SPIRIT] We’re excited to have you in Boston! Have you spent much time here in the past?

[ML] Boston is one of my

favorite cities. It goes Seattle, New York, Boston. It’s one

of the places I’ve been to the most. I’ve traveled a lot for poetry competitions and they’d often take me to Boston. It’s beautiful and I love the vibe of it. I remember the first time I came to Boston: I got off the train in Cambridge, sat down in the park, looked around and everyone was reading. I was like, “everyone is reading?

This is the best day ever!”

[SPIRIT] As a lesbian and an artist, how did the Grammy Awards performance make you feel?

Mary Lambert

people can’t talk for us.” I don’t think it was a matter of nominated and performing, but the boys wanting to speak on that emotion was compounded behalf of the gay community. by the fact that this was I think this was an anthem for something so close to home. allies. I don’t believe there’s For me to be able to sing a song a trace of Ben [Macklemore] on a mass platform that was or Ryan appropriating this produced in such a beautiful struggle. They’re coming from way—it was so emotional for a completely genuine, caring me. I never thought of myself place, inspired by Ben’s uncle. as a spokesperson, but to be We can’t tackle gay rights a lesbian standing there and alone as the gay community, or singing with female pronouns we’d fail miserably. Mobilizing about love so obviously and the ally community is crucial honestly, it was really moving. to furthering the movement I had to work to pull it together and our rights. I think the and get in performance mode! criticism is unfortunate.

[ML] It was such an honor to be

[SPIRIT] Most loved it, some rightwingers hated it—but there was also a specific backlash within the LGBT community that questioned whether the song and performance was an example of “straight privilege” at work. What did you think of that?

[ML] I’m still processing

what it all means. I think I understand where that radical perspective is coming from.

And I do believe that mentality is radical, the idea of “straight

96 | BOSTON SPIRIT

don’t do it all-the-way right. It’s like when a child is learning to walk. You don’t yell at them if they stumble on their first step. They’re going to get better. And this is a massive step in the right direction.

[SPIRIT] You talk a lot about wanting to see more lesbians represented in the media. Why aren’t we seeing more?

[ML] I don’t know. I just know

that from my experiences, I deal with a lot of difficulties with mass media in terms of being plus size and a lesbian. I would like to see my demographic represented accurately—or represented at [SPIRIT] Also, last time I checked, there was a lesbian on that stage too. all! That’s an agenda in what I do. But at the end of the day I [ML] Yeah, I understand where want to create music that has people are coming from, in universal appeal. It’s a fine line terms of the concern. But of wanting to communicate I’m also like “It’s also me! I’m your own experiences and here!” I’m like, waving in the values, but—even if your background. You know, you agenda is subversive—you don’t can’t win. You have to wonder want to alienate anybody. [x] why we’re criticizing people who are trying to do something Find the full story on bostonspiritmagazine.com right because some feel they