Boston Spirit May | Jun 2017

MAY|JUN 2017

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Pride &

Patriotism How Outvets won over Southie

Local Heroes Let us introduce you

Cardinal Compassion O’Malley’s POV on LGBT

Yankee Cruisers Gay boaters set sail

Fitness Tips Shape up for summer

Hot Reels P’town film fest preview

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publisher@bostonspiritmagazine.com

Boston Spirit Magazine supporters

From The Publisher Due to the timing of this issue, I am writing this note prior to Boston Spirit’s 2017 LGBT Executive Networking Night actually takes place. That said, as I prepare for the event I am amazed at what is going to be taking place on April 26 at the Copley Marriott Hotel. This year we have 56 exhibitors, and judging by RSVPs, approximately 1,500 attendees…and one Kathy Griffin. Just incredible.

This is the 11th year we have held the event. The first year we had about 500 people at the old Radisson Hotel in the theatre district. To think of how far we have come is a great source of pride for both the magazine and for the community.

The advancements in the corporate world around the issue of diversity and inclusion over the past decade have been stunning. Equally stunning has been how these advancements have impacted governmental policy and social policy in the country. There is no doubt that pressure from the corporate community has played a significant role in changing the way society feels about the topic of diversity and inclusion, and I am happy that we continue to celebrate that leadership.

2 | BOSTON SPIRIT

I also want to thank everyone who attended the event. Your continued support of Boston Spirit and our events allows us to stay in business, and we are extremely grateful! On that note…we have another event coming up. On June 14 we will head over to the seaport area for our annual Summer Sunset Cruise to benefit Fenway Health. If you have never joined us for the cruise, it is a very fun night.

We’ve got great food, great music and incredible views of the Boston skyline at sunset. And every dollar from your ticket purchase goes directly to Fenway Health.

See page 55 for details.

Finally, I want to wish all of you a very happy, healthy and safe Pride season.

Keep an eye out for Boston Spirit at this year’s Boston Pride parade…we might have surprise or two in store for you.

David Zimmerman Publisher

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As We Go To Press Take Pride!

And when I say “Take Pride,” I mean it.

Take it! Take pride!

I’ve heard a lot of chatter over the years about how important it really is to go to Pride anymore. I mean, we’ve got most of our rights, right? So goes the banter. But it seems the past few months have proved that train of thought to be off-key at best and disastrous at worst.

And so, I say, take pride. And here’s more on why: Have you ever been perplexed by why we call it Pride?

I mean, isn’t pride supposed to be a bad thing? One of the seven deadly sins? In fact, the deadliest of them all? The one that leads all the others? Why would we want to name our LGBT community’s celebration after the deadliest of sins?

I heard a story recently that helped me understand. This young friend graduated from college. He told me how his grandmother told him how proud she was of him.

“I’m so proud of you,” she said.

“Yes! I am so proud of myself,” he replied.

“No, no,” she told him. “It is not for you to take pride in yourself. We are proud for you. You be grateful. You be humble. We will be proud.”

Aha! I thought. It makes sense not to get too proud for fear of hubris, arrogance and a fall.

But what if no one takes pride in you?

4 | BOSTON SPIRIT

That is the situation that we as LGBT people have confronted for eons, and still do today.

The world has never said to LGBT people, “we’re proud of you.”

For centuries, no one took pride in us.

We needed to go away. We needed to change who we were. We weren’t allowed to be teachers or foreign service workers or priests. We weren’t welcome to love who we felt drawn to love. We were forced to go through conversion therapy.

We were burned at the stake and marched into concentration camps and gassed to death. No one took pride in us. In fact, it was the opposite. Society inscribed us with shame.

So we had to take pride for ourselves.

And we have. And, for better or for worse, we need to keep taking it! We may have gained rights—marriage, military and so on. But society still does not take pride in us.

A society where a terror incident like Pulse still happens does not pride in LGBT people.

A society that quietly sidelines gay atrocities in Chechnya does not pride in LGBT people.

A country that reverses rights for transgender school children does not pride in LGBT people.

A country that allows transgender people to still be discriminated against does not pride in LGBT people.

A society where we have to battle each year to simply march in a St. Patrick’s Day parade does not pride in LGBT people.

And so, even with so many of our rights, any place where we have to fight for the simple act of acting as the human beings that we are does not take pride in us.

And so it is that we must take pride over and over and over.

We must take pride.

Until our elected officials and clergy and neighbors and the world repeatedly says, “LGBT people, we take pride you,” we must keep taking pride for ourselves.

So in solidarity with all those who perished throughout history for loving against accepted norms, we take pride.

In solidarity with those who stood up to power for LGBT rights, we take pride.

In solidarity with LGBT today who still experience discrimination in all it’s forms, we take pride.

In respect for ourselves and our LGBT friends and family, we take pride.

We take pride.

Take it.

Take it seriously.

Take pride!

Now go march!

James Lopata Editor

N AT I C K

B O STO N

B U R L I N G TO N

800.368.3778

W W W. D OV E R R U G . C O M

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Hit List

Contents Hit List Community Lifting Summer Page-turners Anchors Aweigh!

Cape-wide Pride Senior Spirit Newsmakers | Connecticut Newsmakers | Rhode Island Newsmakers | New Hampshire Newsmakers | Vermont Newsmakers | Maine

8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 25 29

Feature A Quiet Cardinal Compassion How Boston’s Archbishop O’Malley approaches key LGBT concerns

34

34

Summer Cinema

Patriotism, Pride and the Court of Public Opinion

36

Calendar

How Outvets’ victory over the old guard made Irish eyes smile again in Southie

Spotlight

30

An Invitation to the Table

Cardinal Compassion

An Invitation to the Table Where’s your place at the table?

MAY|JUN 2017 | VOLUME 13 | ISSUE 3

30

Anchors Aweigh!

New England Events

Seasonal Let Us Introduce You

Allow us to make some important introductions.

43

Culture Their Lives Are a Cabaret

76

He’s Got the Beat

78

Pun Intended

80

Our Fair Lady

82

Provincetown festival celebrates both seasoned and rising performers Brian Calhoon’s untraditional musical journey returns to Club Café

Martha Graham Cracker, the “Drag Queen King of Philadelphia,” takes over Oberon Jennifer Ellis, Boston’s premiere musical theater actress, helps build ‘Bridges’

88

Calendar

LGBT history, Sofia Coppola among the highlights of this year’s PIFF

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90

Scene

Taste of the South End 89 Beacons of Light 90 Fenway Health Men’s Event 91 Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Gala 92 Fenway Health Dinner Party 94 Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast 95

Coda Cosmic Thing

B-52’s front guy spreads the message of queer across space and time

96

96

Coda

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GOOD

CELEBRATES Good loves. Good unites. Good takes a stand.

Eastern Bank stands proudly with the LGBT community today and every day as we work towards a more equal tomorrow.

learn more at joinusforgood.com

SPOTLIGHT Trending STORY Scott Kearnan

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

GET IN FORMATION behind this

year’s Boston Pride grand marshal Kristen Porter. The organization has announced that this year’s Pride parade on June 10 will be led by Porter in recognition of her longstanding community service and the 20th anniversary of Dyke Night, her popular philanthropically minded party series. Boston Pride is also offering posthumous honorary marshal status to three recently departed local leaders: Norman Hill, former president of the Gay Officers Action League of New England; Dr. Judy Bradford, an LGBTQfocused health care researcher and original co-chair of the Fenway Institute; and John Michael Gray, one half

famous “Hat Sisters,” whose fundraising efforts garnered countless dollars for local charities—and whose joyful personality brought innumerable smiles to New England’s LGBT community. More: bostonpride.org

SUIT UP for summer in vibrant

swimwear styles from the new gay-founded brand Eyegasmic. The men’s line emphasizes bright, attentiongrabbing colors like “purple orchid” and “red hibiscus” for its head-turning swim briefs and mid-length thigh shorts.

Eyegasmic is also giving back to the LGBT community. The brand works primarily with LGBT-identified models and is working to expand Boston Pride’s an initiative that offers Kristen Porter, discount codes (plus Sylvain Bruni and matching donations) if Linda DeMarco customers receive STD testing or inquire about sexual health education at partner health care organizations. More: eyegasmicbrand.com

the

of

LAY YOUR HEAD at The Residence at Eben House, a historic home in Provincetown that debuts as a full-service private luxury rental this summer. The Residence is a distinct four-bedroom 18th-century home adjacent to the Eben House, an upscale

Eyegasmic swimwear

contemporary inn founded by husbands David Bowd and Kevin O’Shea. This newest property, designed for groups, has a full eat-in kitchen, living and dining rooms and home office, plus a brick courtyard for outdoor fun. Guests at the Residence get access to Eben House’s brand new saltwater pool and can book special amenities like private chef service and gourmet picnic baskets. The Residence isn’t the only new addition Bowd and O’Shea, who also run the nearby Salt House Inn, are bringing to P’town this summer: They’re also opening Salt Supply, a new retail store curating products from indie designers and artisans. More: ebenhouse.com

EXPAND YOUR NETWORKING CIRCLES through Out in Tech.

The NYC-based nonprofit is dedicated to connecting LGBTQ leaders in the tech

industry through social mixers, speaking engagements and other events that allow queer professionals to meet and form friendships and collaborations. Out in Tech boasts over 11,000 members between New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and now Boston, which recently became the fourth city to roll out a chapter. The Hub group is being steered by a quartet of queer tech professionals: Cole Dachenhaus of Hill Holliday, Lakshmi Kannan of IBM Security, Michael Powers of TripAdvisor and Alexis Schuette of Vistaprint. More: outintech.com

HIT THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL to support one of the prominent LGBT power players competing for a seat on the Boston City Council. Longtime councilor Bill Linehan recently announced he will not seek reelection for a sixth term

PUBLISHER David Zimmerman EDITOR IN CHIEF James Lopata MANAGING EDITOR Robert Phelps [rob@bostonspiritmagazine.com] ART DIRECTOR Dean Burchell CONTRIBUTING LIFESTYLE EDITOR Scott Kearnan [lifestyle@bostonspiritmagazine.com] CONTRIBUTING ARTS EDITOR Loren King CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Alyssa Gillin, Natalie Nonken, Kim Harris Stowell CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Joel Benjamin COVER PHOTO Rasmus Degnbol/Redux On the web [BOSTONSPIRITMAGAZINE.COM] T alk to us [FEEDBACK@BOSTONSPIRITMAGAZINE.COM] E ditorial Contact [EDITOR@BOSTONSPIRITMAGAZINE.COM] P ublishing and Sales Contact [PUBLISHER@BOSTONSPIRITMAGAZINE.COM OR 781-223-8538] T he Fine print Boston Spirit magazine. A Division of Jake Publishing, LLC Published

MAY|JUN 2017 | VOLUME 13 | ISSUE 3

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

8 | BOSTON SPIRIT

DIRECT FROM BROADWAY THE TONY WINNING SMASH! “A LOVE STORY THAT TEARS DOWN WALLS.” DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Residence at Eben House in Provincetown

RUN A BACKGROUND CHECK

on those applying for your affections. Aste is a new company that offers comprehensive yet costeffective ($30) reports on romantic prospects, researching arrest records, social media accounts and other publicly available info to make sure your next date won’t be a doozy. Boston-based founder Julie Nashawaty was inspired to start Aste after she accepted a date from an online suitor who was facing trial for bank robbery. (Yes, she called it off.) Nashawaty, whose

brother is LGBT, says she is especially interested in helping gay daters given the prevalence of matchmaking sites and apps and associated safety concerns.

In November, for instance, UK courts convicted so-called “Grindr killer” Stephen Port for murdering four young men he met on the app. More: aste.io

RAISE A GLASS OF GREEN BEER

to Bryan Bishop, founder of LGBT veterans group OUTVETS, which helped end the decade-spanning controversy over LGBT presence in South Boston’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. In March, after OUTVETS was initially barred from marching, Bishop, public leaders and corporate sponsors applied necessary pressure to reverse the decision—and even received an assurance that the Allied War Veterans Council, which organizes the parade, would reform its processes to ensure the LGBT veterans group can participate in future parades. Bishop, who spent 20 years in the Air Force, says future OUTVETS initiatives will include advocating for discharge upgrades for service members expulsed under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. (See story on page 36.) More: outvets. com [x]

PHOTO: JOAN MARCUS

representing District 2, which encompasses parts of the South End, South Boston, Bay Village, Chinatown and Downtown.

Now seeking the seat are two gay locals: South End resident Mike Kelley and South Boston resident Corey Dinopoulos.

Kelley is no stranger to City Hall: Founder of the startup Hire Me Local, he spent years as an aide to former Mayor Tom Menino and directed the city’s Rental Housing Resource Center. Dinopoulos is a senior designer at John Hancock who previously co-founded the committee that pushed Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

More: votemikekelley.com and coreyforboston.com

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SPOTLIGHT Fitness STORY Scott Kearnan

Community Lifting

one too. At my classes, you’ll do Beyonce booty drops and maybe hear a dick joke or two,” says Flahive, who complements his Equinox work with Public Body sessions held in parks and other outdoor spaces from May through September. Public Body will even host a “Work Hard, Play Hard Weekend” in Provincetown May 19–21. Activities will include a 10-mile bike ride along the Cape shore, a conditioning class on the dance floor at Paramount nightclub and a poolside “recovery yoga” session at Crown & Anchor.

GROUP FITNESS GURU LEADS HEALTHY, COMMUNITY-SPIRITED WORKOUTS FOR BODY AND SOUL Group fitness can be a fine way to form friendships and build community. But as anyone who has ever felt judged at an intimidating gay gym can attest, it requires the right environment to do so.

Enter Chad Flahive, a group fitness instructor at Boston’s sleek Equinox gyms. Flahive is putting some muscle behind a more inclusive and philanthropic approach to exercise, launching his own outdoor fitness business, Public Body, and organizing a series of community service-oriented classes that leave participants feeling good inside and out.

“I want everyone to feel like they belong to something, because I didn’t have that for much of growing up,” says Flahive. The Revere, Massachusetts native says he was a “loner” for much of adolescence, an artsy gay kid who took dance classes and still remembers when classmates would yell “faggot” at him through the studio window.

TRAINING TIPS

‘Get Hot. Get Awesome.’

WE ASKED CHAD FLAHIVE TO SHARE A FEW QUICK TIPS TO HELP READERS REACH A FEW DIFFERENT FITNESS GOALS

But those experiences also taught him how to “take control” of his happiness, says Flahive, whose renewed verve during the second half of high school catapulted him to prom king and class president status.

That spirit of self-determination is what Flahive brings to his work as a trainer, calling on additional experience as a former occupational therapist focused on spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation. And he imparts it with humor. “I want to provide a premium experience, but an entertaining

Besides burning calories, it’s building community that’s most important to Flahive.

He likes to integrate service initiatives into his classes: He’s offered free workouts for students who bring food donations for Rosie’s Place, a South End women’s shelter, has collected over 1,000 toys for patients at Boston Children’s Hospital and annually organizes a team for Boston’s Santa Speedo Run that supports the Play Ball Foundation, a local nonprofit expanding sports opportunities for urban youth. He’s also organized workouts for Harbor to the Bay riders at Club Café and Spectacle Island, getting cyclists in shape for their 125-mile ride to benefit AIDS-related charities.

“In the fitness industry, you work with highperforming people who want to be the best version of them,” says Flahive of his holistic, community-building approach. “That manifests not just in a physical way, but in social and emotional ways: helping people feel like they’re part of something bigger in the world.” [x]

GOAL 1

GOAL 2

GOAL 3

SLIMMING INTO SPEEDO SEASON FAST. Count calories—smartly. Ironically, a too-drastic cut can slow your metabolism. So calculate your current caloric intake and reduce it by 250–500 calories per day, then burn at least another 500 through exercise.

Choose the right foods. Emphasize lean proteins and veggies, and ditch sugar.

Eat regularly throughout the day and after exercise, add a muscle-building recovery snack like a protein shake, nuts or fruit with peanut butter.

Amp up training intensity. To accelerate calorie burn, shoot for a workout that alternates short spurts of high-intensity exercise with brief periods of rest.

Strength train with compound movements, those that incorporate multiple muscles and joints.

Think pushups and deadlifts.

ROCKING KILLER ABS. Eat a balanced breakfast. You can’t see those abdominals if they’re hidden under extra pounds, so boost metabolism by 20–30% by eating a healthy breakfast like an omelet of egg whites and avocado.

Sleep well. Inadequate sleep increases levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that causes fat storage in the midsection.

Aim for 8–9 hours of sleep per night.

Work abs low and slow. Longer holds will help get those muscles ripped.

When doing crunches, twists or other ab exercises, flex and tense for 6–10 seconds, then relax for 6–10 seconds. Repeat for 10–20 sets.

Don’t forget weights. Crunches can’t do it alone, so for optimal ab development, incorporate weighted ab movements in the 8–10 rep range.

FEELING PROUD OF YOUR BODY AT ANY SHAPE OR SIZE. Reduce social media intake. You have no idea what killer filters went into your friend’s seemingly flawless gym selfie. If you find that Facebook has you feeling more defeated than inspired, get offline while you attend to your own goals.

Dress the body you have now—not the one you used to have. It may sound tempting to keep around old skinny jeans as a form of incentive, but you’re really holding on to an unhealthy message that you need to be fixed. You’ll feel happier, and get healthier, in clothes that fit you properly.

Respect and honor others’ body types.

You’ll never respect your own body until you recognize that every one has else a shape and size worthy of love and respect too. Period.

Set small goals. Appreciate the hard work that goes into fitness, and work to be your best—not someone else’s idea. Outline one or two specific things you want to accomplish and work until you see results. It’ll motivate you to make more.

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SPOTLIGHT Books STORY Scott Kearnan

Summer Page-turners EIGHT TIMELY TOMES THAT DESERVE YOUR ATTENTION Find some shade, and get ready to read.

a fast-moving read suitable for parents and kids alike.

With the summer beach season nearly upon us, we know you’ll be seeking some page-turners to keep you company on the sand of P’town, Ogunquit and elsewhere. So allow us to offer a suggested summer reading list compiled of books that have LGBT-related themes that are set in New England or written by local authors.

LANGDON HAMMER

“The History of Top 40 Singles: 1970–1989” FRANK DEANGELIS

“Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World” SARAH PRAGER

Too often, LGBT people and their experiences are omitted from history books—and as a result, members of the community may grew up without positive examples of those that came before. In this book, slated for release in late May, Prager, a Connecticut-based lesbian author, educator and entrepreneur behind Quist, an LGBT history app, collects 23 stories that show the queer side of historic figures: from household names like Abraham Lincoln to lesser-known names like Roman emperor Elagabalus. It’s

“James Merrill: Life and Art”

Relive the glory days of disco, new wave and iconic anthems with this comprehensive new book by gay Rhode Island author DeAngelis. The tome climbs year by year through the decades when many of us came of age—and, of course, came out—offering trivia and behind-the-scenes stories on the songs that provided the soundtrack to life. From the Bee Gees to the Jackson Five, Michael to Madonna, they’re all in there. And once you learn the histories of their hits, you’ll never hear them the same way again.

12 | BOSTON SPIRIT

The James Merrill House in Stonington, Connecticut, former home of the Pulitzer Prize-winning gay poet, is now a preserved historic place that hosts a writer-in-residence program for today’s talent. But to fully appreciate the legacy of its late inhabitant, get this brilliant biography (a Lambda Literary Award winner) by Hammer, chair of Yale University’s English department. It explores the life of a young man from a privileged family (James’s father cofounded Merrill Lynch) who forged his own identity as a gay literary great through eras of rampant homophobia and the AIDS crisis. It’s powerful and poignant.

of Fall River, Massachusetts in a Portuguese family devout in its Catholicism. His rejection of his real sexuality and struggles with mental illness are the major themes in this witty, tender memoir, where the author—founder of a James Beard award-winning recipe website—also traces his affection for food and cooking as a form of salvation. Nicknamed “Banana” by his mother, Leite peels back many layers to reveal a bold, relatable truth.

“Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family” AMY ELLIS NUTT

“Notes on a Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love and Manic Depression” DAVID LEITE

Pack this book in your beachready picnic basket. Leite grew up in a blue-collar community

In 2014, Nicole Maines made history. The Portland, Maine native triumphed in a landmark ruling by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, the first time a court ruled it unlawful to force a transgender student to use a school bathroom that doesn’t align with their gender identity.

The middle-class, Republicanvoting Maines family never expected they’d be thrust into the national spotlight of a hotbutton issue, but this fascinating account of their collective experience takes us through her family’s transformation into an even more supportive, connected unit.

“The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir” ALEXANDRIA MARZANO-LESNEVICH

“Six Neckties”

Part murder-mystery, part memoir, this debut true crime tome

by Boston author and Harvard faculty member Marzano-Lesnevich, released in May, is a fascinating exploration of morality and memory. Back when she was a law student and intern, Marzano-Lesnevich was immersed in the case of a child’s murder—a case that leads the previously anti-death penalty author to experience uncharacteristic vengefulness. She is forced to confront memories of her own early traumas and how they relate to her lesbian identity, grappling with her roots in revelatory ways. [x]

JOHNNY DIAZ.

Diaz lives in Miami, but the CubanAmerican author has plenty of friends up here in Boston, where he was a “Globe” reporter for several years. His latest novel is set in the LGBT-friendly summer resort town of Ogunquit, Maine. It focuses on Tommy, a lovelorn gay guy who is always the groomsman (never the groom!) as he helps his buddies plan their wedding. Tommy, though, suddenly fields himself fielding some romantic advances—and just may wind up with his own wedding soon. If you’re looking for a breezy romance set in familiar stomping grounds of gay New England, look no further.

“Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” ALISON BECHDEL.

It’s been just over a decade since Bechdel released “Fun Home,” her graphic memoir about growing up with her bisexual dad. “Fun Home” eventually inspired a Tony Award-winning stage musical—but if you still haven’t read the original piece, it’s worth picking up now for a new reason: Bechdel, a lesbian who lives in Vermont, was just named the state’s third cartoonist laureate. She’s also about to revive her long-running illustrated series, “Dykes to Watch Out For,” after an eight-year hiatus. Turns out, you can go “Home” again—or, for the uninitiated, the first time.

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SPOTLIGHT R&R STORY Scott Kearnan

Anchors Aweigh!

NEW ENGLAND’S YANKEE CRUISING CLUB SETS FRESH NEW COURSE

If the phrase “gay cruising club” bri ngs to mind salacious activities, cool your jets. There is such a club making waves in Boston— but the dress code is more “critter pants” than “leather chaps.”

“I’m a member of a regular yacht club, but I never felt like I fit in there completely,” says Keith Costa, new commodore for the Yankee Cruising Club, a nearly 30-year-old organization for LGBT boaters in New England.

Though the group has officially been around for a while, it recently started charting a fresh course: In 2016, after a number of rather idle, listless years, Costa offered to step up to the helm of the volunteer-led organization.

Now membership is growing, regular events are on the horizon, and LGBT motor- and sailboaters have a comfortable clique for sharing their passion.

Having an LGBT-centric club of this kind is important to many members. Call it a generalization, but it’s no secret that sailing clubs tend to be populated with plenty of upper-crust

The writing’s on the wall Steps from MASS MoCA Down the road from THE CLARK #InTheBerkshires

North Adams, MA porches.com

14 | BOSTON SPIRIT

conservatives and Brahmin elites—and these are not always the most reliably gay-friendly audiences. “It’s great to not have to come out to an entire organization, particularly an older, stuffy, WASP-y organization,” chuckles Costa.

Don Hussey agrees. He’s been sailing since he was a child growing up in Pocasset, Massachusetts and today takes to the water, often with his partner, in his 54-foot Alden ketch. He has been a member of Yankee for the last 10 years or so, and in May his North Attleboro home will host a potluck kickoff to the club’s 2017 season. Hussey previously was part of a non-LGBT boating club in New York—an experience that underscored the value of what Yankee offers. “In a formal yacht club—I’m not going to say they’re homophobic, but they tend to be staunchly opinionated and Republican. I always felt a little out of place being around all the straight couples.”

Any sense of restriction is antithetic to sailing, an act that,

perhaps especially for LGBT people, can other capture a profound sense of liberation. “What I love about sailing is the sense of freedom,” says Costa, who grew up in Westport, Massachusetts and has been sailing since he was five years old. Today he lives in Dorchester and has a Kirie Elite 364 sailboat he keeps in South Dartmouth. “It’s not like driving, where you’re on a set path. On the water, there are no restrictions on what you can do or experience.”

June, an August cruise from Buzzards Bay to Provincetown, and a week-long September sail to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

“ In a formal yacht club— I’m not going to say they’re homophobic, but they tend to be staunchly opinionated and Republican. ”

Now that Costa is captaining the Yankee Cruising Club, he’s hoping many more will be able to enjoy that same experience.

The club, which organizes online using a meetup.com page, has about 170 members, of which about 70 are active, says Costa.

They range in age and experience, from lifelong sailors with their own boats to novice 30-something enthusiasts who are still getting their sea legs. The

Don Hussey group is made of mostly men but is hoping to gain more women members, says Costa.

The group’s outings range from sangria-soaked happy hour get-togethers on dry land—at waterfront restaurants like Legal Sea Foods, of course—to flotillas that see multiple boats sail the coast by day, then dock together for group parties by night. This summer, scheduled events include a sail and overnight tied to Hull Pride celebrations in

Throughout all the outings, though, it’s the formation of friendships that really drive the appeal. “I’ve only been running the club for about a year, but through it I’ve met some of my best friends,” says Costa.

Hussey shares the sentiment. “When my younger friends ask, ‘why would I want to join a club?’ I explain that my philosophy is pretty simple: With today’s lifestyle and apps, finding sex is very easy. Finding someone for dinner and conversation is much more difficult. The boating club is an opportunity to be out there on the water with people with whom you already have a common tie.”

So go ahead. Go cruising. [x]

meetup.com/Yankee-Cruising-Club

MAY|JUN 2017 | 15

SPOTLIGHT Pride STORY Scott Kearnan

Cape-wide Pride

Zoe Lewis

LGBT. Lieberman is a longtime ally who has supported LGBT and AIDS organizations since the 1980s and was quietly officiating symbolic same-sex weddings in the 1990s.

He credits his parents’ progressivism, and his faith, for imparting his own conviction in inclusivity. “It’s absolutely wrapped up in my identity as a Jew, and that heightened sensitivity for marginalized communities,” says Lieberman.

SECOND ANNUAL SHINDIG SPREADS THE LOVE FROM FALMOUTH TO P’TOWN Big change starts with small steps.

That’s something the gay community knows well. And it’s an outlook held by the organizers of Cape Cod Pride, one of our region’s fledgling LGBT celebrations. Approaching its second installment on Saturday, June 24, in Falmouth, Massachusetts, Cape Cod Pride is poised to grow from the approximately 300 attendees who turned out for last year’s debut. Word of mouth is spreading, and the Cape’s underserved LGBT community—dispersed across the peninsula, not just in the known enclave of P’town—is proving eager for a Pride option of its very own.

“Last year, we had no idea what the result would be. It was a modest crowd with great energy,” says Rabbi Elias Lieberman of the Falmouth Jewish Congregation. Lieberman serves on the steering committee of the Falmouth chapter of No Place for Hate, a social justice-oriented community organization, and for years he has opened his synagogue to monthly meetings of PFLAG of Cape Cod. Last year the organizations came together to jointly launch Cape Cod Pride, the first Pride celebration on the Cape in about 10 years. Lieberman is bullish on its future.

“Going into it this year with more time and more resources, we wanted to make it larger and more exciting,” says Lieberman.

“And once the election came and went, there was a tremendous feeling that it was more important than ever.” For this year’s event, the organizing committee more than doubled to about 25 people, says Lieberman. And Cape Cod Pride was able to secure financial support from Eastern Bank and

16 | BOSTON SPIRIT

the Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation, among others.

The event, which will take place from 12–3 p.m. at the Morse Pond School in Falmouth, will feature live music by Provincetownbased folkie troubadour Zoë Lewis, tunes by DJ David Frye, food, games, giveaways and vendor tables. Last year Congressman Bill

Leading the charge for PFLAG of Cape Cod is the organization’s new co-president, Denise LaBarre. Though LaBarre is not LGBT, she has a transgender son and lesbian daughter, and is sensitive to the struggles they’ve faced. She’s watched as the parents of her son’s longtime friends have become less accepting of him since he came out as trans. She feels such responses underscore the need for new Pride celebrations even in a true blue state like Massachusetts. “In light of the current political environment, people feel less appreciated, less safe and less welcome,” says LaBarre.

“People feel like their equality is being threatened.”

“A lot of LGBTQ people feel very isolated on the Cape,” she adds. “There are no gay bars, less places to go than in the Boston area. Plus some of the youth cannot drive to places.”

Keating appeared as a guest speaker, and he has been invited to return in June, says Lieberman.

Cape Cod has a strong LGBT community, but outside of Provincetown, relatively few organizations, regular events and venues that can allow for members of the community to connect. Cape Cod Pride is a way to foster those networks, says Lieberman, and show support to wary LGBT folks in a postTrump age of emboldened bigots.

Ironically, neither of the two sponsoring organizations’ main representatives are

What they will have now is their very own Pride event. And expect these early steps to yield results that grow in leaps and bounds.

“If we’re in the black, we’ll set aside some seed money for next year’s celebration so we can hit the ground running,” says Lieberman, who also hopes Cape Cod Pride will be able to commit some funds to Freedom Massachusetts, a transgender rights organization that will be fighting to retain the state’s public accommodations protections, up for a repeal vote on the 2018 state ballot.

Such a step backwards is anathema to Cape Cod Pride, an organization focused on progress. “Though we’re holding it in Falmouth again, we hope it can eventually become something for all of Southern Mass,” says Lieberman. He adds with a laugh: “As long as people will brave the bridge traffic.” [x]

SPOTLIGHT Senior Spirit STORY Bob Linscott

Senior Spirit

Spirit of First Boston Pride Lives On LGBT SENIORS SHARE STORIES ABOUT THE FIRST BOSTON PRIDE MARCHES For anyone under 45, it may be hard to imagine the range of emotions that surface as seniors share their stories of early Prides. These gathering were not parades or celebrations in those first few years; there was very little in the gay community to celebrate. These events were political demonstrations to show visibility. On an personal level, they were about bravery and risk. The very decision to attend the march carried with it a double-edged sword: showing up involved taking courage to be visible plus the risk of losing your job if you were seen by family or co-workers.

For Boston’s first gay march in 1970, Sam Goldfarb was 40 years old and a school

psychologist in the Quincy public school system. He was very active in the growing gay community, so he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to participate in this important event. He felt torn because he knew if he was seen he would lose his job.

The only way Goldfarb and his teacher friends could attend was to go in disguise with paper bags over their heads with cut-out eyes.

George Casper of Dorchester said he “imported” a lesbian from New York to go with him when he attended his first march. He also wore dark sunglasses and a big hat. “The next year I shed the lesbian, the following year the hat and the

year after that the glasses,” he says with a laugh.

As a school teacher, Tracy Powers from Jamaica Plai was also afraid of the risk of being seen, so she would stand near the subway entrance on Charles Street and disappear quickly if she spotted a student.

One year, she couldn’t bear to do that any longer, stepped out from the crowd and joined the marchers. She said it was one of her greatest acts of courage because she knew she was risking her career. But in the end, she said being honest and authentic was more important.

Despite being one of the organizers of that first march in Boston in 1970, Ralph Hodsdon was too afraid to show up to the event because he feared being physically attacked. He went the second year as he and other organizers worked hard to

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communicate to all participants a goal to look as “normal” as possible. They didn’t want the outside world to think of gay people in a derogatory way. Hodsdon was pleased that the whole crowd received that message except one man who dressed in drag and roller-skated the whole route. Much to the organizers’ horror, after all their work, The Boston Globe ran only one photo of gay pride that year and it was the drag queen on skates.

Lois Johnson also joined the organizing committee for the second march in 1971 but told her friends that she would be unable to march because of her job as a local TV producer for WGBH. She watched from the

Boston Daughters of Bilitis, 1974 side until the group she organized, The Daughters of Bilitis, marched by. Johnson walked right out into the crowd and took

a corner of the sign and marched the rest of the way. She said she felt this march was an affirmation of who she was, and she wasn’t about to let that moment or the march pass her by.

Ruby Katz, 72, reminisced about the sheet cake served at the end of the first march in the gazebo on the Commons. All the 30–40 marchers had a piece.

Although the march was more like a protest, the cake was a celebration. “The next year the crowd grew in size and they kept cutting smaller and smaller pieces of cake to feed the nearly 200 people who gathered after the march. In the third year they gave up on the sheet cake. [x]

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SPOTLIGHT News STORY Natalie Nonken

Newsmakers | Connecticut Articles from The Constitution State BAR ASSOCIATION HONORS STANBACK Former director of Love Makes a Family and longtime LGBT advocate Anne Stanback received the Connecticut Bar Association’s Citizen of the Law award.

“This is less about me but an acknowledgment of the movement for LGBT equality and gay marriage specifically,” Stanback told the Hartford Courant. “Our work is not over but we also have to celebrate our progress, and I appreciate the CBA doing that.”

Stanback is now working to get legislation passed that bans conversion therapy on younger patients.

CHOCOLATE AND CHEESECAKE In April, True Colors held its 13th annual Chocolate and Cheesecake for a Cause

event. The celebration, hosted by comedian Christine O’Leary, took place at Anthony’s Ocean View Fine Catering in New Haven.

The night provided a fun opportunity to support the work True Colors does for the LGBTQ community. Partygoers indulged in cheesecake made by the Gourmet Goddess as well as other delicious food, an open bar, a DJ and dancing. All of the money raised in ticket purchases, as well as auction and raffle money, went so support True Colors, Inc.

BORN THIS WAY FASHION SHOW On Sunday, May 7, OutCT is hosting its Born This Way fashion show in New London. For tickets ($60), go to outct.org. Proceeds from ticket sales plus a silent auction benefit OutCT’s LGBTQ Youth Program.

Ann Stanback. Photo courtesy of wnpr.org The show features models dressed in drag and a night of dancing.

Says OutCT: “Your involvement will help highlight the importance of all children and young adults, especially LGBTQ youth. We believe that everyone has the right to feel safe, to be empowered, and to make a difference in the world; together we will move towards acceptance, bravery, and love.” [x]

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SPOTLIGHT News STORY Kim Harris Stowell

Newsmakers | Rhode Island This Just in from Little Rhody TRIPLE CROWN PAGEANT After a blockbuster event—complete with an extra-terrestrial theme and a salute to Miss Gay Rhode Island 1997 Miss Jackie Collins on the 20th anniversary of her win—the judges turned in their votes for this year’s 2017 Triple Crown Pageant title holders.

And the winners are: Mr. Gay Rhode Island…

Tim Rondeau; Miss Gay Rhode Island…

Viza D. Klein; Ms. Bisexual Rhode Island…

Tammy LaForest; and Ms. Lesbian Rhode Island … Ashley Delgado.

OVERHEARD ON STATE HOUSE FLOOR Rep. Author Corves to members of Everytown for Gun Safety: “Gun laws are a slippery slope—like laws that protect the equal rights of gay people. First they want equal

housing, then education, then jobs, now they can marry!”

LGBTQ YOUTH SCHOLARSHIP AVAILABLE The Lipsky/Whittaker Scholarship Fund is accepting applications through June 1.

Awarding a total of $5,000 in multiple scholarships to support LGBTQ persons, including those raised in LGBTQ households that demo and youth activism supporting LGBTQ rights, the fund is available to Rhode Island residents and those attending a post-secondary institution in Rhode Island.

The scholarship was established through the estate of John Lipsky and George Whittaker who were life partners for more than 50 years. The two gentlemen passed away in 2005, just eight weeks apart. Their dream

Triple Crown Pageant winners. PHOTO Jen Bonin was to see “young LGBT men and women grow up without the fear of rejection, violence, discrimination or exposure to HIV/ AIDS.” Youth Pride Rhode Island established a scholarship committee of local educators and community members with diverse backgrounds to review all applications and make award recipient determinations.

Applications are available online. For more information call 401-421-5626 or e-mail info@youthprideri.org. [x]

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MAY|JUN 2017 | 23

SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps

Newsmakers | New Hampshire Headlines from the Granite State HOUSE GOP TABLES TRANSRIGHTS BILL The Republican Leadership of the New Hampshire House of Representatives tabled its transgender civil rights bill on March 9.

The bill would have guaranteed civil rights protections in employment, housing and public accommodations.

“With [Governor] Chris Sununu’s support, the bill, which was tabled by a slim margin, would be on its way to the corner office,” said Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley. “His silence and apathy are a tacit endorsement of discrimination, and he will have to live with the fact that he denied many transgender people the freedom that is granted through equality under the law.”

CONVERSION THERAPY BILL HITS ROADBLOCK

V I N TA G E COLLECTION – at –

In another setback for LGBT rights in the Granite State, the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee voted 13–8 in late March to hold back a bill that would have banned conversion therapy for minors.

RUGS AND CARPETING U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan

Boston

t

Salem

t

Framingham

t

landryandarcari.com

24 | BOSTON SPIRIT

“It’s another year to go without protections for people,” said Democratic Rep. Renny Cushing, who cosponsored this bill as well as the civil rights bill for transgender people, which would be denied several days later. However former governor and now U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan signed an executive order six months before leaving office prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in state government; that policy remains in place.

SEN. HASSAN REBUKES TRUMP WHITE HOUSE’S ANTI-TRANS STANCE Newly seated U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan’s had sharp words for the Trump administration’s actions against transgender people, and she delivered them at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual spring convention in Washington, D.C. on March 10. The newly elected senator lambasted Trump in a keynote speech before an estimated 400 people at the convention for, among other things, his Cabinet choices, whom she called “consistent opponents of LGBT equality. “ [x]

SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps

Newsmakers | Vermont

Green Mountain State Update PRIDE CENTER SAYS NO TO GAY BAR’S NEW NAME The Pride Center Vermont does not support a Winooski bar’s new name when the club formerly known as Oak45 reopened in early April as the gay bar “Mister Sister.”

It’s owner, Craig McGaughan, insists the name is inclusive.

Its transgender neighbors call it a slur.

In late March, the Pride Center held a Trans Town Hall, which by all accounts became quite heated. There, trans people expressed “how painful it would be for them to walk by a business with that name every day,” wrote the Center’s director in a public statement. But many

voices shared a different perspective, insisting, “the phrase is one of affection and the name is not intended to hurt,” the statement went on to say.

The Center ultimately sided with the trans community’s concerns.

“This is about the LGBTQ movement,” explained the Center’s director. “It’s not about the name of a bar—it’s about the hurt that trans people are experiencing in being told they do not matter enough to be heard. It’s about what makes an ally and who needs them most in this moment.”

“We cannot hold events at any place that uses hate speech as its name. We cannot accept donations from any place with

Mister Sister interior PHOTO courtesy of Mister Sister/Twitter. hate speech as its name. We condemn the use of hate speech in promotional materials and especially on signage. The Pride Center of Vermont rebukes the name ‘Mister Sister.’”

VERMONT TOPS STATES IN LGBT ID According to a February 6 Gallop News report, Vermont is on top of a new national ranking of adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender— a whopping 5.3 percent of Vermonters.

Massachusetts came in a threeway tie with California and Oregon for second place across the nation at 4.9 percent, with Nevada coming in at a respectable 4.8 percent.

The numbers are based on 2015–’16 data from 400,000 interviews and estimates consistence with Gallop research showing national increases from 3.5 percent to 4.1 percent in 2016. [x]

MAY|JUN 2017 | 25

What is TRUVADA for PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis)?

u You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver

TRUVADA is a prescription medicine that can be used for PrEP to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection when used together with safer sex practices. This use is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV-1 through sex. This includes HIV-negative men who have sex with men and who are at high risk of getting infected with HIV-1 through sex, and male-female sex partners when one partner has HIV-1 infection and the other does not.

Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to prevent getting HIV-1. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids. Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

Who should not take TRUVADA for PrEP?

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about TRUVADA for PrEP? Before taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: u You must be HIV-negative. You must get tested to make sure that you do not already have HIV-1 infection. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are confirmed to be HIV-negative. u Many HIV-1 tests can miss HIV-1 infection in a person who has recently become infected. If you have flu-like symptoms, you could have recently become infected with HIV-1. Tell your healthcare provider if you had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting TRUVADA for PrEP or at any time while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Symptoms of new HIV-1 infection include tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin.

While taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: u You must continue using safer sex practices. Just taking TRUVADA for PrEP may not keep you from getting HIV-1. u You must stay HIV-negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. u To further help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1: • Know your HIV-1 status and the HIV-1 status of your partners.

• Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months or when your healthcare provider tells you.

• Get tested for other sexually transmitted infections. Other infections make it easier for HIV-1 to infect you.

• Get information and support to help reduce risky sexual behavior.

• Have fewer sex partners.

• Do not miss any doses of TRUVADA. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

• If you think you were exposed to HIV-1, tell your healthcare provider right away. u If you do become HIV-1 positive, you need more medicine than TRUVADA alone to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

TRUVADA can cause serious side effects: u Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, nausea, vomiting, stomach-area pain, cold or blue hands and feet, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or fast or abnormal heartbeats. uSerious liver problems. Your liver may become large and tender, and you may develop fat in your liver. Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach-area pain.

problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking TRUVADA for a long time. In some cases, these serious conditions have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions. u Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you also have HBV and take TRUVADA, your hepatitis may become worse if you stop taking TRUVADA. Do not stop taking TRUVADA without first talking to your healthcare provider. If your healthcare provider tells you to stop taking TRUVADA, they will need to watch you closely for several months to monitor your health. TRUVADA is not approved for the treatment of HBV. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you already have HIV-1 infection or if you do not know your HIV-1 status.

If you are HIV-1 positive, you need to take other medicines with TRUVADA to treat HIV-1.

TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you also take lamivudine (Epivir-HBV) or adefovir (HEPSERA).

What are the other possible side effects of TRUVADA for PrEP?

Serious side effects of TRUVADA may also include: u Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider may do blood tests to check your kidneys before and during treatment with TRUVADA for PrEP. If you develop kidney problems, your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking TRUVADA for PrEP. u Bone problems, including bone pain or bones getting soft or thin, may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones. u Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking TRUVADA or medicines like TRUVADA. Common side effects in people taking TRUVADA for PrEP are stomacharea (abdomen) pain, headache, and decreased weight. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or do not go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking TRUVADA for PrEP?

u All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you

have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. u If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRUVADA can harm your unborn baby. If you become pregnant while taking TRUVADA for PrEP, talk to your healthcare provider to decide if you should keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Pregnancy Registry: A pregnancy registry collects information about your health and the health of your baby. There is a pregnancy registry for women who take medicines to prevent HIV-1 during pregnancy.

For more information about the registry and how it works, talk to your healthcare provider. u If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. The medicines in TRUVADA can pass to your baby in breast milk. If you become HIV-1 positive, HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. u All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. TRUVADA may interact with other medicines. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine. u If you take certain other medicines with TRUVADA for PrEP, your healthcare provider may need to check you more often or change your dose. These medicines include ledipasvir with sofosbuvir (HARVONI).

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about TRUVADA for PrEP including important warnings on the following page.

Have you heard about

TRUVADA for PrEP™?

The once-daily prescription medicine that can help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 when used with safer sex practices.

• TRUVADA for PrEP is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV through sex.

• You must be HIV-negative before you start taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Ask your doctor about your risk of getting HIV-1 infection and if TRUVADA for PrEP may be right for you.

visit start.truvada.com

IMPORTANT FACTS (tru-VAH-dah)

This is only a brief summary of important information about taking TRUVADA for PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection. This does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your medicine.

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT TRUVADA FOR PrEP

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF TRUVADA FOR PrEP

Before starting TRUVADA for PrEP to help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: • You must be HIV-1 negative. You must get tested to make sure that you do not already have HIV-1 infection. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are confirmed to be HIV-1 negative.

• Many HIV-1 tests can miss HIV-1 infection in a person who has recently become infected. Symptoms of new HIV-1 infection include flu-like symptoms, tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin. Tell your healthcare provider if you have had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting TRUVADA for PrEP. While taking TRUVADA for PrEP to help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: • You must continue using safer sex practices. Just taking TRUVADA for PrEP may not keep you from getting HIV-1.

• You must stay HIV-1 negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. • Tell your healthcare provider if you have a flu-like illness while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. • If you think you were exposed to HIV-1, tell your healthcare provider right away.

• If you do become HIV-1 positive, you need more medicine than TRUVADA alone to treat HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time.

• See the “How to Further Reduce Your Risk” section for more information.

TRUVADA may cause serious side effects, including: • Buildup of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, nausea, vomiting, stomach-area pain, cold or blue hands and feet, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or fast or abnormal heartbeats.

• Severe liver problems, which in some cases can lead to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach-area pain.

• Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you have HBV and take TRUVADA, your hepatitis may become worse if you stop taking TRUVADA. Do not stop taking TRUVADA without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months.

You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking TRUVADA for a long time.

TRUVADA can cause serious side effects, including: • Those in the “Most Important Information About TRUVADA for PrEP" section.

• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure.

• Bone problems.

• Changes in body fat.

Common side effects in people taking TRUVADA for PrEP include stomacharea (abdomen) pain, headache, and decreased weight.

These are not all the possible side effects of TRUVADA. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with TRUVADA for PrEP.

• Take 1 tablet once a day, every day, not just when you think you have been exposed to HIV-1.

• Do not miss any doses. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

• You must practice safer sex by using condoms and you must stay HIV-1 negative.

ABOUT TRUVADA FOR PrEP (PRE-EXPOSURE PROPHYLAXIS)

HOW TO FURTHER REDUCE YOUR RISK

TRUVADA is a prescription medicine used with safer sex practices for PrEP to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection in adults at high risk: • HIV-1 negative men who have sex with men and who are at high risk of getting infected with HIV-1 through sex.

• Male-female sex partners when one partner has HIV-1 infection and the other does not.

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• Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months or when your healthcare provider tells you.

• Get tested for other sexually transmitted infections. Other infections make it easier for HIV-1 to infect you.

• Get information and support to help reduce risky sexual behavior.

• Have fewer sex partners.

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BEFORE TAKING TRUVADA FOR PrEP Tell your healthcare provider if you: • Have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.

• Have any other medical conditions.

• Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you become HIV-1 positive because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby.

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take: • Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist.

• Ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with TRUVADA for PrEP.

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GET MORE INFORMATION • This is only a brief summary of important information about TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection.

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• Go to start.truvada.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5 • If you need help paying for your medicine, visit start.truvada.com for program information.

SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps

Newsmakers | Maine

News from the Pine Tree State SEN. COLLINS CO-INTRODUCES JUROR EQUALITY BILL

PORTLAND MUSEUM FEATURES TEEN TRIBUTE TO GAY LEADER

Senator Susan Collins jointly introduced a bill to the U.S. House and Senate that would ban anti-LGBT discrimination in federal court jury selection.

A multimedia portrait of an early activist in the LGBT movement by a high school junior was featured in the Portland Museum of Arts’ Youth Art Month show, which went on display for a month through April 2.

The bill would amend an existing law, adding protections to cover sexual orientation and gender identity as well as race and sex. Collins and Senator Jeanne Shaheen brought the bill to their peers on March 13, two days after it was introduced in the House. Among those who immediately signed on were Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

Notably, Collins is the only Republican to have signed onto the legislation.

The artist, Grace Connolly, is a junior at Deering High School in Portland. For her portrait, Connolly chose to pay tribute to Sylvia Rivera (born Ray Rivera Mendosa), an LGBT activist, who, after the 1969 Stonewall uprising worked with the Gay Activists Alliance and campaigned for New York City’s Gay Rights Bill. Rivera was a strong advocate for transgender rights and homeless youth.

Portrait of Sylvia Rivera by Grace Connolly

PROTESTERS RALLY AGAINST REPEAL OF TRANS PROTECTIONS In response to the Trump administration revoking federal guidelines that protected transgender students’ rights to use public school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, protesters hit the streets.

On March 1, about 150 demonstrators assembled outside the Equality Community Center in downtown Portland and marched along Congress Street. Chanting “trans lives matter,” they held signs that said “We stand on the side of love” and “Love over Fear.” [x]

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FEATURE Religion STORY Rob Phelps

Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston. PHOTO George Martell/ Archdiocese of Boston.

A Quiet Cardinal Compassion How Boston’s Archbishop O’Malley approaches key LGBT concerns Consistency and compassion are key qualities when it comes to Cardinal Seán O’Malley’s approach to the LGBT community.

“The Church’s position is not based on an animus against people with a homosexual orientation,” O’Malley wrote in a public letter early in his tenure as Archbishop of Boston. “Each and every member of the Church is called to holiness regardless of their sexual orientation. The Church has often warned against defining people by their sexual orientation in a way that diminishes their humanity.”

“Many homosexual persons in our Church lead holy lives and make an outstanding contribution to the life of

30 | BOSTON SPIRIT

the Church by their service, generosity and the sharing of their spiritual gifts,” he acknowledged. “We must strive to eradicate prejudices against people with a homosexual orientation.”

“At the same time,” he added, “the church must minister to all people to obey God’s commands, the roadmap for a meaningful human life that allows us to draw near to God and to one another.”

Just how narrow that roadmap may be, however, remains a bit unclear.

We reached out to the Archdiocese for some clarification but were basically given O’Malley’s public “Letter on Homosexuality” from 2005 and the assurance that

the Cardinal approached all people in the same sincere and steady manner.

“His comments,” Archdiocese spokesperson Terrence Donilon told us, “are just as relevant today and consistent [with everything he has said and done as Archbishop]. They exemplify how he thinks and sees the church in ministering to all people regardless of their background, station in life and their sexual orientation.”

O’Malley’s record backs this up in that he consistently adheres to Church doctrine, at times nudging it gently in the direction of tolerance, if not acceptance.

To the firing of LGBT church workers at Catholic schools and parishes, he told a Boston Globe reporter he found the trend “problematic” and said it “needed to be rectified.” In the aftermath of last year’s shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, he acknowledged on NPR that “the gay and lesbian communities in Orlando, here in Boston, throughout the United States and throughout the world were understandably devastated by this targeted assault.”

These may be just a few words, but O’Malley is a man of few words. He shuns the spotlight, says Donilon. He chooses his words, and where he puts them, with great consideration.

When you’re the Archbishop, just a few words can make a big difference. O’Malley is the church’s ecclesiastical leader for all of New England and a leader among all bishops acrosss the country and around the world. He’s a board member of the Church’s elite Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith—the guys that interpret the rules. And he is one of only nine cardinals on the Council of Cardinal Advisors to the Pope.

His words matter.

In 2014, O’Malley co-wrote a letter to the U.S. Senate with Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore opposing a bill that would have limited so-called “religious freedoms” in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. (Lori is one of three bishops currently supporting national legislation to refuse adoption and foster-care services to same-sex couples on religious grounds.) In 2015, Cardinal O’Malley urged the Senate to pass a bill defunding Planned Parenthood. And in his first public statements following the Pulse shootings, he did not acknowledge that the victims were LGBT people until activists

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reached out to remind him how important it was to do so.

It’s also unclear where he stands on transgender rights (though the church is taking a slow, skeptical and disparaging approach to what they’re calling “gender theory”). Or on conversion therapy. Or exactly how far he would go in support of “religious liberties” that threaten civil liberties—legislation that not only allows homophobic bakers and florists to turn down same-sex wedding jobs, but paves the way for nonprofits and government agencies to deny healthcare, housing and other basic social services to LGBT people.

The people in the pews In many ways, Cardinal O’Malley’s approach echoes that of Pope Francis— lauded by many for bringing a fresh spirit of tolerance, if not acceptance, to the Vatican.

“We’re seeing a lot of parallels in how O’Malley and Francis approach LGBTQI issues,” says Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, the

Marianne Duddy-Burke and Abdel Sepulveda presiding over Dignity Boston Easter services, St. Stephen’s Church, April 2017.

Boston-based national LGBT Catholic advocacy group. (DignityUSA is holding its biennial national conference in Boston on July 6–9. See related story on page 34.)

“I think that [both O’Malley and Francis] are caught in this dilemma of wanting to be welcoming and compassionate while still living within doctrine that is very damaging to people’s lives and is very dehumanizing. And I don’t think that they know how to address that fundamental conflict,” says Duddy-Burke.

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Peggy Hayes, president of Dignity’s Boston chapter, says, “The people I hear about Francis from are my non-Catholic friends—my Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist friends—who come up and say, hey, what do you think about this new Pope?”

“The primary effect that Cardinal O’Malley and other church leaders have on us is that what they say and do becomes part of the conversation with our friends and families,” she says. “They tell us they read things in The Pilot and in so far as

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these things are negative or judgmental around LGBTQ people, that’s problematic for our families, who have embraced who we are. They hold our babies and dance at our weddings. They celebrate us. We as a society, including the Catholics in the pews, have really moved on and embraced LGBT people in their lives with love and acceptance.”

“My hope is always in the people in the pews,” Hayes says. “We have received so much positive acceptance, love, support and energy from our Catholic families— and our extended Catholic family—that people are really leading the hierarchy.

The hierarchy is behind unfortunately.”

Philip White is a member of Dignity Boston and co-chair of DignityUSA’s upcoming national conference. “I could go to a church that prides itself on being very LGBT-welcoming,” he says—churches like St. Cecilia Parish, Shrine of St. Anthony or The Paulist Center in Boston; Our Lady of Sorrows in Sharon; or St. Susanna Parish in Needham.

“I could go there with my husband and be welcomed as such. However we could never have been married in that church

because they do not recognize the right of LGBT people to be married.” (Though most of its members identify as Catholic, in order to hold their services, Dignity Boston must rent a space in St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the South End.) “Clearly Cardinal O’Malley and church leaders all the way up to the Pope are trying to make inroads, trying to develop a greater sense of tolerance, if not inclusion,” says White. “From an LGBT perspective—from my perspective—until the point where the church fully accepts and fully recognizes LGBT people, we’re still second-class citizens. Tolerated as opposed to persecuted.”

A watchful eye “I would say that [the Boston chapter of Dignity’s] relationship with Cardinal O’Malley is that there’s no direct relationship whatsoever,” Hayes says. “I think there is an interest on the part of various people in the Catholic Church in Boston and around the country to reach out to the LGBT community. But there’s no way for the church to approach subjects that are

part of LGBT life—like gay and lesbian parents raising their children in the Catholic faith, or marriage equality—in ways that would invite our community into that conversation.”

“The church unfortunately is still in this stance of ‘othering’ us and in holding out limitations on our full participation in the life of the church,” she says.

“My concern as a member of Dignity Boston is always around where the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church—the institutional church—is going in terms of where it connects with public policy because public policies are the things that affect us,” she says. “As LGBTQ Catholics, we live in the world of our faith, but also we live in the civil arena. We work for companies. We work for the government. We are affected by public policy changes. And so we’re always hoping and praying for the Church to be influential on public policy in a positive way. But we’re also always keeping a close eye on where the church is putting its energy that could affect our freedoms and our protections.” [x]

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FEATURE Faith STORY Rob Phelps

An Invitation to the Table Where’s your place at the table?

DignityUSA wants everyone to know we all have one.

That’s the theme of the nearly 50-year-old organization’s national conference this year— “A Place at the Table.” This 23rd annual event is being held at Boston’s Park Plaza July 6–9, making it extra easy for New Englanders to pull up a chair and take our place.

“The table represents a lot to us,” says Conference Co-Chair Philip White, a member of the Boston chapter working closely with Dignity’s national leadership. “For a religious organization, it represents the Eucharist, the altar, the place where we all gather. But we also see the table as a place where we all gather in society.

So much of what Dignity does is not only about religion and spirituality but about social

34 | BOSTON SPIRIT

justice and seeking rights for everyone.”

“Our theme this year is especially timely given the current political climate and landscapes in our country,” White adds. “What’s unique about this conference is the opportunity we’re creating to challenge ourselves to be sure that we as a community are as open about making a place at the table for others as we’re seeking a place for ourselves.”

The conference is open to “anyone who’s interested in the intersection of faith and justice and community,” White says. “People of all faiths, not just our members. And that includes our speakers and panelists. Our keynote speaker is a Methodist minister at the Boston University School of Theology.”

Dr. Pamela Lightsey, Associate Dean for Community Life and Lifelong Learning at Boston University School of Theology. PHOTO Dominique

Riofrio

Dr. Pamela Lightsey is that keynote speaker, delivering an address called “Table Manners for Hungry Radicals.” Lightsey is the openly queer lesbian African-American ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. She’s also an Army veteran who teaches courses on “just war” theory and LGBTQ theology at BU, where she serves as both professor and dean.

“Dr. Lightsey is perfect for our conference because she works right at the intersection of theology and activism, which is what we’re all about,” says Marianne DuddyBurke, executive director of DignityUSA. Also gathering around the table is a plenary panel featuring Walter V. Robinson, who led the Boston Globe Spotlight

Team that won a 2003 Pulitzer Prize for investigating the sexual abuse of children

by Catholic priests; Jamie Manson, who pens the popular “National Catholic Reporter” column “Grace in the Margins”; ex-Diocesan priest Jon Shum of Dignity/Boston; and trans-faith activist Louis Mitchell.

The exciting speaker line-up also features Boston Spirit columnist Bob Linscott, associate director of The Fenway Institute’s LGBT Aging Project; Casey and Mary Ellen Lopata, co-founders of Fortunate Families, a ministry with Catholic parents of LGBT daughters and sons; James B. Nickoloff, professor emeritus of religious studies at Worcester’s College of the Holy Cross; sociology professor Michele Dillon; Buddhist Jean Beebe; Boston playwright Nina Louise Morrison; and Krysztof Charamsa, a former high-level Vatican official who came out very publically as a gay man in a committed relationship with another man on the even of the 2015 Synod of the Family in Rome.

“We want to look at who is part of our movement, how we can connect with other movements and how we can intentionally make space at our table for a more diverse group of folks—whether that’s allies, people of color, trans people, everyone sharing our voices in the movement,” says Duddy-Burke. [x]

.

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MAY|JUN 2017 | 35

FEATURE Pride STORY Rob Phelps

Patriotism, Pride and the Court of Public Opinion How Outvets’ victory over the old guard made Irish eyes smile again in Southie The blowback came swift and harsh.

When the Allied War Veteran’s Council of South Boston notified Outvets that its leadership had voted 9–4 to exclude the LGBT veteran’s group from returning for the third year to march in the 116th annual Boston Saint Patrick’s Day Parade—just a week and a half before the event—the news was met with sharp rebuke.

Criticism came from government leaders like Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, U.S. Congressman Stephen Lynch and Senator Edward Markey. All of these officials and more said they’d boycott the parade if Outvets was denied its place. Corporate sponsors like Stop and Shop, Anheuser-Busch, the Dedham Institution for Savings and Boston Scally Co. withdrew their support.

36 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Media outrage came from The Boston Globe, New York Times, Washington Post, Advocate, CNN and many other outlets, and their reports went viral across social media. Perhaps most telling, Southie residents cried “enough already,” the Council’s decision was making their neighborhood look bad, and they wanted Outvets back in their parade.

“The parade organizer’s decision was one of the worst political miscalculations I have ever seen, and I’ve been in politics for almost 20 years,” said Dee Dee Edmondson, a public affairs and government relations attorney who volunteers her time and services for the LGBT veterans group. “The nearsightedness of it all was just astounding.”

Retrying an old agrument The call came at 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday, March 7. When Bryan Bishop saw who was calling him at home so late, he knew it wasn’t going to be good news.

Bishop is Outvets’ founder and CEO. A 20-year Air Force veteran, he’d been instrumental in getting the group into the parade in 2015 and again in 2016. To make that happen, he’d worked closely in step with Mayor Walsh, Congressman Lynch, State Rep. Nick Collins and the late Brian Mahoney, former commander of the Allied War Veteran’s Council.

Before that, an LGBT group hadn’t marched in the parade in 25 years. Back then, all along the parade route, they were heckled, threatened, spit on, tossed at with rocks, bottles and smoke bombs.

Ultimately, they were kicked out for good by a legal case that went all the way up to the Supreme Court in 1995—“Hurley vs.

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Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson [FAR RIGHT] joined OUTVETS at a Club Café gathering after the parade organizers reversed their decision.

Group of Boston”—which the LGBT marchers lost in a unanimous decision.

Contrast that disastrous experience with Outvets’ first march two years ago. In 2015, U.S. Congressman and Marine Corps veteran Seth Moulton marched with the group, prominently positioned at the front of the parade. Boston mayors hadn’t marched in the parade for two decades since the LGBT ouster, but in 2015 Mayor Walsh, joined

by Governor Baker, ended the boycott, telling the Globe “It’s a huge step. Society has changed. Southie has changed.

Boston has changed. I think this opens the door to putting years of controversy behind everybody.”

The following year, in 2016, the Council placed Outvets at the end of the parade line-up, separating them from all of the other veteran’s groups, but Outvets still marched, and they marched proudly.

And then came 2017. Bishop’s late-night phone call was from Council member Ed Flynn. “I have bad news,” Flynn said.

“The Council voted to exclude Outvets this year.” Bishop asked him why. “Well they had a lot of reasons and they were all bad,” Flynn told him.

Bishop asked him to be more specific. “Well they were just all bad ideas, bad reasons,” Flynn replied. Bishop asked him if it was because they got

their application in late. (The Council had received Outvets application on the very day it was due, February 15. Bishop had sent it by both express mail and email.) No, Flynn assured him, that wasn’t the reason.

Flynn “hemmed and hawed” a while longer, said Bishop, but gave no reason for Outvets dismissal from the parade that night.

The call hadn’t really surprised Bishop. OUTVET’s strong ally and Council commander Brian Mahoney had passed away the previous November. “After the funeral, a few of us went out to lunch,” Bishop said, “and one of the people from South Boston, someone who knows these things, said, ‘They’re going to try to kick you guys out this year because with Mahoney gone and the current [postTrump-election] climate, certain people are feeling emboldened to reverse this.’”

After Bishop hung up with Flynn, he picked the phone up again and dialed the night desk at The Boston Globe. He spent the next four hours on the phone with reporters. He also called Mayor Walsh and contacted his board. At 3 a.m., he went to bed.

One of the board members Bishop contacted, John Affuso, an Army veteran and the group’s senior vice commander, was preparing to

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leave for Washington, D.C. the next day to attend the Human Rights Campaign’s annual spring equality convention. Affuso is also a Boston steering committee chair for HRC. “My first reaction was this is just going to blow up in the Council’s face because we’ve marched for the past two years, following the guidelines, and nothing’s changed.”

Affuso had moved to South Boston the previous September, close by Broadway Station near the start of the parade route.

“The 9–4 vote to keep us out of the parade certainly didn’t reflect the neighborhood.

And from our prior years marching, I can tell you there’s definitely been a lot of long-term Southie residents along the side of the parade who are extremely supportive,” he said.

On Wednesday morning, at the HRC convention in Washington, Affuso reached out to Congressman Lynch, who represents the South Boston district. The two discussed the Council’s decision, and by the end of the week—in the midst of the House vote to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act—the Congressman was on a plane to Boston.

Taking the stand Meanwhile in Boston, Flynn and fellow Council member Tim Duross met with Bishop and Edmondson in the lobby of the Omni Parker House to try and sort things out. It was Wednesday afternoon, the press was all over the story and the Council was feeling the heat.

The Council members told Bishop and Edmondson that Outvets’ application to march in the parade had been late after all.

Bishop pulled out a copy of the application and pointed out there was actually no due date on it, reminding Flynn that he’d received the email on time and that the due date had only mysteriously appeared on the website around the time Flynn had called him back in February.

Next, Outvets was accused of violating the parade’s code of conduct. Bishop asked the Council members to elaborate. The previous year Outvets had been asked to remove the rainbow flag from the parade.

Outvets hadn’t complied because the rainbow color bars are part of the group’s trademark logo. Back in 2016, Outvets told the Council this and the issue was

dropped. (Point of fact: Outvets doesn’t march with a rainbow flag, just these color bars, stitched into their emblem, that symbolize an intrinsic part of their identity.)

Bishop then asked how the rainbow flag violated the code of conduct, and was told that the rainbow flag violated the code’s ban on any depictions of sexuality. This angered Bishop. He looked down at the rainbow bars on the Outvets logo and said, “Does this make you hot? Because if this makes you hot, you’ve got more problems than I do, brother. Do you know what the rainbow flag even stands for? It stands for hope. It stands for peace. It stands for equality and diversity and inclusion. If you look at this and all you can see is sex, then you’ve really got problems.”

The Council members said they’d lost support from the Catholic Church. (Actually, it was the Massachusetts State Council of the Knights of Columbus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Harvard—not the Archdiocese of Boston—that pulled out of the parade when Outvets first marched in 2015. According to Duross, the Council reached out to Cardinal O’Malley for support, but the Church refused to get

involved. A spokesperson for the Cardinal said he was unaware of any such communication.) Duross told Bishop that the parade was a religious event. Bishop reminded him that the parade was officially a veteran’s event. Privately, he thought, “you want to call this a religious parade when you’ve got all these underage kids vomiting on the streets from drinking?

When it’s a big, old drunkfest?”

Bryan Bishop and fellow Outvets at Boston’s 2017 Saint Patrick’s Day Out loud, he said, “Come on, try Parade. Outvets founder and CEO, Bishop is also commissioner of again.”

Military Affairs and Veterans Services for the City of Somerville.

“We’ve marched in your parade twice,” he told them “We’ve added, “You know, I have to say that you marched in Pride parades, we’ve marched guys always look sharp and have never in city parades, we have been honor guard given us any problem in the parade.” for many more events. And you want to “Then why are we really here,” thought sit here and disrespect the service and Bishop. “Because we’re gay,” thought sacrifice of veterans who just so happen Edmondson. “We all know their code-ofto be in the LGBT community. Many who conduct argument is just code for ‘Don’t were willing to go to war and die without be gay. March silently. Look like us, act like anyone knowing who they really were.” us, don’t be gay.’”

At that point, the meeting was pretty The lobby of the Omni Parker House much over. is not the best place to have a private Flynn said, “Well let’s just take it back meeting. Waiting at the doors were more and call for a new vote.” In parting, Flynn reporters and TV cameras. As Edmondson

said, “With the parade a week away, we didn’t have time to retry that old Supreme Court case. But we were trying the case in the court of public opinion, and we were winning.”

Things proceeded quickly from there. The Council called for a re-vote. By the end of the week, Congressman Lynch arrived from D.C., went to the Council’s meeting on Friday night for the re-vote and brought with him a group of young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from Southie. Since its first parade in 1901, the Allied War Veteran’s Council of South Boston had changed over the years. Now, not one member of its leadership council was a veteran and few even lived in South Boston, said Edmondson. They were the “old guard.”

It was time for a changing of the guard.

Case closed Friday night, the re-vote came in at 11–0 in favor of Outvets. What moved the vote from 9–4 against to unanimously in

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favor? While no Council member could be reached to speak on record, Edmondson said the answer was clear: pressure from the press, parade sponsors, elected leaders and their neighbors.

The Council also granted Outvets a permanent place in the parade. Plus, said Bishop, “the young cats basically staged a coup. They’re getting ready to put new leadership in there. The parade management is going to be a lot more transparent.

It’s going to have a lot more people in the community taking part and helping to plan and execute it.”

“The goal is to clean things up, crack down on the underage drinking and make this multi-million dollar tourist attraction for the city of Boston more of a family event,” says Edmondson.

Maybe the Catholic groups that left the parade will come back.

As for Outvets, the mission statement is simple, says Bishop. “We honor service and sacrifice to LGBT veterans, their families and their friends.”

But the group’s actual mission goes further.

“We want to identify the veterans— people who served, are still on active duty, in the guard and reserves,” he said. “We want them to know they have a welcoming place. To socialize, to participate in community service and to be able to inquire about support services such as housing, health care. We want to help veterans who left the service before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and DOMA upgrade their discharge status. We want them to know we’re their if someone’s just having a hard time. If you’re not a veteran, we have an auxiliary for friends, family, anyone who just has a passion for supporting veterans.”

Outvets marched in Boston’s 116th Saint Patrick’s Day parade. Tens of thousands of people cheered them on. Spectators waved rainbow flags along the entire route.

“Of the three times we’ve marched, this was certainly the most enthusiastic reception we’ve gotten from the spectators,” Affuso said.

Following the parade, the group hosted an after-party at Cathedral Station. “So many people and a lot of them from South Boston, came out to show their support,”

said retired Navy veteran Robert Santiago, Outvets’ senior vice commander and chief operating officer. “You could see it in their eyes, how happy they were.” Santiago contrasted this emotional outpouring with the equally supportive but angry postings he had received only days earlier from South Boston residents over the Council’s behavior.

“It was like a shot in the arm that revived us all,” Santiago said. “It energized us about where to go next. There’s so much work to be done. It was a wake-up call.”

For Edmondson, the message was clear: “Don’t be complacent. Don’t believe that all is lost in this current political climate.

Don’t stop paying attention. It might take a lot of effort, but we need to keep fighting.

Because we’re not marching backwards.”

“I’m looking forward to marching next year,” said Affuso, “when we don’t have to get surrounded by TV cameras and 50 photographers, and we can just march like any other group of veterans in the parade, which is all we really want to do.” [x]

www.outvets.com

Foxwoods.com 42 | BOSTON SPIRIT

SEASONAL People STORY Scott Kearnan PHOTOGRAPHY | ART DIRECTION Joel Benjamin

Let Us Introduce You From poets to activists and from artists to politicos, New England’s vibrant LGBT community is full of people who are pushing to make our region — and really, our country — a better, brighter, and more beautiful place for all people. Whether it’s bringing gay representation to the executive offices of major sports teams, addressing health care disparities that impact queer people of color, or conveying passion and power through artistic expression, all of these individuals have their own way of making an impact. Here are some of their stories.

Allow us to make some important introductions.

David Baggs Director of Sales Academy & Season Ticket Sales, Boston Red Sox In recent years, more high-profile athletes have stepped out of the closet and on to the playing field. But representation in the executive offices is just as important.

Behold Baggs. Last year, following an office visit from gay former Major League Baseball player Billy Bean, Baggs was inspired to come out to Sox owner John Henry and the rest of the team’s leadership. It was a freeing moment for a sports executive who says he didn’t really confront his sexuality until he came out to his parents in his late-20s.

He kept quiet in the professional sphere, though, where anti-gay wisecracks weren’t uncommon. “I started late in the sports industry because I was afraid of being in sports and gay,” admits Baggs. “Today that seems like an asinine opinion. But it took pioneers and business leaders to change that.”

Now Baggs, who has shared his experience with OutSports, proudly stands among them.

When did you first identify as gay?

I was confused for the better part of early life, up until I was 25 or so. That’s when I started to realize I was gay. I didn’t even admit it to myself for many years, for various reasons.

One was that I grew up as an athlete, playing football and running track. Back then I wasn’t sure what I was thinking.

Do you remember any instances that kept you closeted in the industry?

When I moved to work for the Tampa Bay Rays, I was out to my friends but I said to myself, “Don’t come out here.” They are one of the most progressive organizations in all sports. But someone who worked there made negative comments about someone he thought was gay, and I remember thinking, “Oh boy. If that’s what it’s like even here, you better keep your mouth shut.”

[CONTINUES 46]

44 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Dominique Coley

Dominique Coley

Spoken word poetry artist Words have power—including the power to set your heart free.

That’s what Dominique Coley learned when she discovered spoken word poetry. Coley grew up in the city of Brockton amid Caribbean and church communities that set an inhospitable tone for coming out as queer. “I remember thinking girls were cute, but it scared me because I knew my family wouldn’t accept it,.” Her dad was a minister. Her mom sang in the choir. She wanted to be their “dream child.” She was a high-achieving student and athlete, but internal struggle over her sexuality sent her into a deep depression that nearly cost her diploma. She “shut down.”

Then she spoke up. Writing and performing her poetry gave her the strength to come out and share her experiences as a queer black woman.

Today her words transform her into characters through which she shares her observations—on culture, race, the queer experience—in stirring live recitations like “Albatross,” about a woman who loses the love of her life through police brutality, and online videos like “Amerikkka,” a statement on race relations in the US-of-A. She was recently highlighted by Boston-based, nationally acclaimed organization The Theater Offensive in an evening celebrating the works of black queer women. One word: Powerful.

How did you discover spoken word?

In high School I was coming to terms with my sexuality. But ever since I [CONTINUES 46]

MAY|JUN 2017 | 45

was little I’d written poetry, though I never read it out loud. In sixth grade I brought a poem to a librarian at my school, and her reaction was the first time I realized my words have strength and impact. She bought me my first poetry book. She kick-started it.

I’m sure it made it harder to be your best at work.

I’ve always been in sales, where you’re on a team and a lot has to do with camaraderie.

I’ve worked with some amazing people and met some of my best friends there.

But because you can’t share that part of your life, there’s always this huge anxiety.

“Who am I going to bring to the company holiday party?” “Am I going to be the one gay guy when everyone else brings their girlfriend?” So you go solo. It sounds so juvenile, but it really makes an impact.

Why is spoken word your medium, as opposed to any other art form?

There’s just something about the act of speaking that is powerful: words, coming from a mouth, without anything excess added to it. I try to set up my poetry in a way that anyone at any age can identity with it. I want to put people in the shoes of another. It slows people down. It puts them in someone else’s mind, where they can understand different situations and scenarios.

How does it feel to be out now?

The OutSports story came out just a few days before last year’s Pride Night, and I was part of the group that threw out the first pitch. It was much different than selling tickets and being in the background!

A lot of great things have happened. I got involved in the local FLAG Flag Football league [an LGBT league] and I’ve made some amazing friends. It feels awesome. [x]

Are there any particular issues you’d like to explore more?

So many things! But I do want to write poetry dedicated to Caribbean parents and their children. I want to tell them, “Okay, it’s going to suck. No getting around that. A lot of people with supportive families aren’t going to understand where you’re coming from. But at the end of the day, you’re not going to be happy if you just go along with what you’re told.

Who are some of your artistic inspirations?

Growing up I was very shy, so I really looked up to Maya Angelou and Phylicia Rashad and the way they carried themselves as women. But if anyone has inspired my poetry, it’s the Boston crew I hang around with, people like Black Venus. Seeing how passionate they are about their art gave me that final push. [x]

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Kate Moore Regional director for Senator Elizabeth Warren At a time when many Americans, particularly LGBT people, are struggling to find solace amid the new administration, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a proudly roaring liberal lion, is offering some of the Democratic leadership her party pines for. But she can’t do it without support, and Moore is the “eyes and ears of the senate office on the ground,” handling constituent casework and maintaining connections with elected officials and stakeholders in her designated Greater Boston and MetroWest regions. It’s an awesome responsibility, but whether she’s up here in the Hub or down in D.C., Moore is making sure that one of the most vital voices in Congress has the information and resources she needs to speak up for her side.

During the 2016 election, Moore was also the deputy political director for Hillary for New Hampshire, helping Clinton clinch the win in the purplish Granite State. She looks to both women as role models, but don’t expect Moore to run for office herself.

The Belmont, Massachusetts native was grassroots organizing for Hillary Clinton’s first presidential campaign when she was still in high school, and feels she’s better suited behind the scenes. Besides, her work already earns her the popular vote: Moore sits on the board of directors for BAGLY, and the out lesbian recently became the first recipient of the “Spirit of the YLC Award” presented by the Young Leaders Council of Fenway Health. Can she change the world? Yes, she can.

What was coming out like for you?

I’ve been incredibly lucky to grow up in a progressive suburb of Boston, one of the most accepting bubbles you can land in. Yet it took me a little longer to come out. I came out at around 21. I went to Smith College, and I think in in a weird way I was almost intimidated by how sure and confident the LGBT people were on campus!

Thanks to Senator Warren, #shepersisted became a trending hashtag. Is there any moment [CONTINUES 50] 48 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Alex Reimer Sports writer and on-air personality, WEEI Although he ran cross-country in high school, Reimer says he’s “not that athletic.”

And though he covers sports for major national outlets like Forbes and NFL NewsDesk, he says he “never wanted to be a journalist, necessarily.”

“I do journalism, but my goal was always to entertain people,” says Reimer. “I wanted to be in the middle of the debate. I’ve always liked my voice being out there and my opinion being heard.”

We hear it, loud and clear. Being in the limelight comes naturally to Reimer, who at age 12 was a guest on “The Today Show” and “The Tonight Show” for his preternatural success as a massively popular sports blogger. He immersed himself in blogging and podcasting—handy distractions from thinking about his sexuality, he admits now—throughout his teenager years. He came out in college.

In November, he also came out publicly on WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan,” one of the country’s most popular sports radio shows, where the 24-year old Reimer is a clever, quipping and observant cohost. Reimer, a past contributor to Boston Herald Radio, now brings an openly gay personality to a decidedly non-PC program in a format and genre still wanting for LGBT representation.

And his particular interest—namely, the intersections between sports, and culture— is rife for the exploration that only a smart, savvy, digital media prodigy can bring— whether he does it as a jock, or a radio jockey.

[CONTINUES 50]

MAY|JUN 2017 | 49

from working for her or Hillary that underscored to you the value of persistence?

At a town hall in New Hampshire, she responded to a question about what drives her by talking about a Jesuit quote that has become a guiding life practice: the “discipline of gratitude.” When she’s had these incredible setbacks, of which she’s had many, she reminds herself that there is also much to be grateful for. That really stuck with me. I can be so upset about the election, or what’s happening in my personal life, but I’m also incredibly privileged to have the job that I have.

Would you ever run for office?

I guess I could never say “never” — but I didn’t grow up dreaming of being a United States Senator. I love the political process and making a difference behind the scenes. I see firsthand how much scrutiny an elected official receives and I have so much respect for those who handle it. But to be an elected official, you have to really want it. [x]

Since you don’t consider yourself an athlete, why did you choose to go into sports?

comes to LGBT inclusion. But there’s still something missing in the equation in making the locker room a truly open and welcoming space.

It’s a fit for my personality. When you’re talking about sports you can be more bombastic than about more serious topics. But it’s also a springboard to talk about cultural and social issues. That’s what makes someone like Colin Kaepernick such a great story. You can talk about his protest in terms of what it does to his football value, how it relates to police brutality, and whether it bothers you if he doesn’t stand for the National Anthem.

Did you get any backlash within sports media after you came out on the “Kirk & Callahan” show?

What’s a sports-related social issue you’re interested in right now?

Who’s the hottest Boston athlete? Go.

I’m puzzled at the fact that we still have no active openly gay players in the NFL, MLB, NHL or NBA. At the corporate levels, these organizations seem to do a great job when it

The reaction from colleagues and coworkers was fine. I don’t think it’s hurt. In fact, it’s probably helped to be honest with you. In sports radio, it helps me stand out. There’s traditionally a more heterosexual, conservative audience. I come in and shock that audience a bit.

I always like a jock-douchebag type, so [Jimmy] Garoppolo and [Danny] Amendola do it for me. Much more so than Brady: He seems a little too tender, a little too soft to the touch. [x]

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Stephen Shapiro Scholar and professor, Bennington College Ask anyone who has worked to advance to LGBT rights, and they’ll tell you: You can’t impact the present—or plan for the future— unless you understand the past. That’s what makes Shapiro’s work so important. A Virginia native, he is now an authority on earlymodern French literature and culture. He also interrogates intersections with the history of sexuality, using his expertise to mine history for insights on the development of gay life: say, digging through 17th-century police records to uncover details from sodomy arrests. Shapiro shares his findings in published works and public lectures, like a recent Club Café-hosted presentation with the History Project, a New England LGBT nonprofit, on the culture of cruising—from Paris’s Tuileries to the Fens of Boston. His work deepens our understanding of the gay experience, to which we say: Merci.

Right now, where are you pulling from history for lessons about the present?

In 18th-century Paris, the moral police included undercover agents who set out looking for sex in the major parks to bust young men for prostitution or soliciting sodomy. In my opinion, besides policing people for their sexual behavior, it was about police pushing the limits of power as a test. And when they do that, they choose a community that not a lot of people will rise up to defend. Historically, police repression of gay men has to do with us being a convenient experiment for police to see how much they can get away with. With Donald Trump, we’re in a period of similar pushing: “How much can I get away with?

What group can I lean on that no one is going to complain about?”

What’s one surprising contrast between modern LGBT culture and the period you study?

In archives related to 18th-century France, there’s no bottom shame. One of the principle maxims of contemporary queer studies is the [CONTINUES 54]

52 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Mario Rodas Chair, Massachusetts General Hospital LGBT Employee Resource Group Rodas had two coming-outs. He had to come out as gay—not easy, says Rodas, considering the conservative religiosity in his native Guatemala. And he was also publicly outed as an undocumented immigrant in 2006 when Rodas, whose family came to Chelsea, Massachusetts when he was 12, was detained in an immigration sweep. The star student’s story made national headlines—and made Rodas a poster boy for immigrant rights. It also caught the attention of then-senator John Kerry, whose support secured political asylum. Today Rodas, who has served on the executive board of directors for the Student Immigrant Movement of Massachusetts, advocates for both immigrant and LGBT communities. At MGH he promotes inclusivity, whether pushing for all-genders bathroom signage or distributing info to patients and medical professionals during LGBT Health Week. He’s also on the steering committee of the Human Rights Campaign’s New England chapter. His mover-shaker status is definitely well documented.

What was your coming-out like?

In the Latino community there is some institutionalized homophobia: religious and cultural backgrounds that make being gay frowned upon. Because I was 20, coming out was a bit different. I was able to get involved with the Human Rights Campaign and it made me open my eyes to see that I could be something bigger. I started volunteering at the organization, and next thing you know I’m on stage at the gala dinner.

[CONTINUES 54]

notion of topping and bottoming being about power, and the idea that the bottom is the person who has given up masculine privilege. In 18th-century Paris, you wouldn’t expect to see that. There doesn’t seem to be any distinction made, and no judgment or apology for what people like.

What have you learned about the nature of social progress?

The idea of progress is an invention. Every time you get a bit of progress, you get something catastrophic and retrograde.

At the beginning of the 18th century, sodomy was officially the greatest crime against nature; by the end of the 18th century it was decriminalized. It looks like progress, but homophobia doesn’t end there. History tells us progress is an illusion and we always have to be on guard. I’m a Jew, and the periods of Jewish integration into societies were followed by periods of genocide. [x]

What about your comingout as an undocumented immigrant?

I gained the support of my friends, my school and my family. They came together to try and stop my deportation. Nowadays people are not as afraid to come out of the shadows anymore, but back then it was a little new. We got a lot of media attention from different outlets. I remember walking into a 7-Eleven and seeing myself on the front page of the “Boston Herald.” It really was like coming out as an undocumented person—and then later on, as gay person.

What’s something you’ve learned about advocacy that applies to both immigrant and LGBT communities?

One thing that I have learned from my years in advocacy is to not hide in the shadows. You should put

yourself out there. That’s what a lot of undocumented students are doing now. They’re not hiding in the shadows. I remember when my story was out there, a lot of other individuals were afraid to give their real names to the media out of fear that immigration would find them.

Now that’s changing.

Looking ahead, what are your hopes for activist movements?

I think the election of our current president has galvanized engagement in different communities to be more involved in the system. I want to be part of that movement to resist. I want to empower the LGBTQ community and Latino immigrant communities. They are so very dear to me, and in both cases we are stronger people because we are diverse. [x]

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amazing clients At Burns & Levinson, we know that building relationships with our clients is the key to our success. Here, our attorneys tell a few stories about some of their most memorable client relationships and victories.

Laura Studen

Lisa Cukier

Donald Vaughan

Burns & Levinson is a Boston-based law firm with more than 125 attorneys. We work with entrepreneurs, emerging businesses, private and public companies and individuals in sophisticated business transactions, litigation and private client services.

Our LGBT Group: Lisa Cukier l Scott Moskol l Deborah Peckham l Laura Studen l Donald Vaughan l Ellen Zucker

Parents fuss about their children. There are some parents who are fully supportive of their LGBT children.

Then, there are situations when one parent is supportive, and the other is oppositional (to put it mildly!) about choices their LGBT child wants to make. Parents are likely to have shared legal custody and shared legal rights to make decisions for their child, while the child has no legal standing whatsoever. Imagine a child who expresses the desire to transgender, and one parent is supportive, the other adamantly opposed.

Should the child have a voice of their own? Under a Massachusetts program known as Attorneys Representing Children (ARC), the Probate Court can appoint a pro bono attorney to give a voice to children who need their own advocate, in addition to parents.

Burns & Levinson has supported a number of attorneys who participate in the ARC program.

I currently have a client that I represent under ARC appointment. The client's mother is supportive, feeling that this child is mature enough, and emotionally stable enough to start the desired transgender medical and psychological processes. The client's father is devoutly religious, and not open to having his child change the gender assigned to them at birth. My client has participated in conversations about what bathroom transgender people can, should, or should not use, and those conversations are not nearly as challenging as the "conversations" that have incorporated anger, tears, threats, and intimidation.

My experience representing this ARC client has called on my years of experience in a probate courtroom— researching the law, and shaping the narrative that best describes my client's social, emotional, psychological self.

Out of shyness came a warm, musically talented, funny person on the way to finding independence, and their own voice. My firm has supported the countless pro bono hours needed to develop this trusting relationship that has now blossomed into a friendship. Each one of my clients is special, but this one is extraordinary. The journey ahead for my client will not be a short one, and the journey for the parents may be even longer, but as an ARC attorney I feel blessed to be given the opportunity to help navigate the passage.

Laura Studen

Partner, Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Nothing is more outrageous than adult siblings who financially exploit their siblings in the name of "Mommy loved me more." This unfortunate dynamic finds its way into family relationships when one sibling is LGBTQ and the others are not. Family litigation is extraordinarily expensive but often it is the only way to redress the cruel injustice of family members that take financially advantage of LGBTQ family members. It takes skill and finesse to avoid this type of high-conflict litigation.

My trust litigation team and I hit a grand-slam on behalf of a woman who is the beneficiary of her late mother's trust. Her mother loved her children equally, but my client's brother thought he was the star child and that he was thus entitled to a share of his sister's trust. The trust litigation matter could have cost over one hundred thousand dollars in litigation fees, not to mention forensic accounting fees and emotional upset and aggravation.

Instead, we settled it shortly after filing suit, and without one court appearance.

Laurie's late mother set up trusts in equal shares for all her children. She made her oldest son the trustee of the trusts for each of her children, meaning that Laurie, my client was to receive annual distributions from the trust.

However, Laurie was not receiving regular distributions of income from the trust, and when she did receive money, the amounts were small enough to raise her suspicions. Laurie's calls and emails to her brother, Lou, were disregarded, and he stonewalled her request for a copy of the trust and information on its assets.

Laurie came to me asking whether I could get a copy of the trust and find out what is going on. Lou was not too pleased to receive a letter from me. He referred me to his own lawyer, and after much pressing, I received prior years of accountings. Despite tactically cryptic line items, I realized Laurie had been improperly deprived of her rightful annual trust distributions by her brother. A deeper look at the accountings demonstrated Lou's self-dealing and misappropriation of trust assets for his own benefit.

Lou had, for years, been paying himself hefty trustee fees from Laurie's trust even though he did not do much of anything in his role as trustee. He farmed out his own trust duties to a well-respected financial institution and to his own attorney, who ironically was the so-called "trust protector" for our client. He even had the chutzpah to pay himself more money in trustee fees than he distributed to our client for years, which we discovered in the accountings we demanded.

My team and I successfully secured the voluntary resignations of the brother and his lawyer from the trust; forced the brother to return the excessive trustee fees that he had generously paid himself; garnered an immediate distribution of cash from the trust for our client, and made sure the former trustee brother paid all legal fees incurred in the case. Last, but not least, I was named as successor trust protector to ensure the client's trust would be protected for years to come.

All without ever going to trial.

Lisa Cukier — Partner, Private Client

When I reflect on my LGBT clients, one couple comes to mind as living examples of how our society has evolved, and the significant contributions members of our LGBT community make to it. For privacy purposes, I won't identify them by name.

I met them in the mid-1980's when a partner at my old law firm asked me to work with two guys buying a house together; I was out at my firm, which may be why I was asked to get involved. The guys already owned a house; I noticed on the deed that they were listed as joint tenants with rights of survivorship. Hmmm...not usual for "unrelated" parties. When I learned that they were into classical music, I made mention of my partner and how "he" is an organist and harpsichordist. Knowing looks were exchanged and we became friends outside the lawyer-client relationship.

One of the guys was starting a company in the managed health care sector, which was being represented by the brother of his co-investor, a solo practitioner. When the company's needs seemed to outgrow what that lawyer could handle, I was asked to put together a team from my firm that could represent the growing start-up.

A class action lawsuit was filed against the company and a litigator at my firm became the defense lawyer; the suit was settled in the company's favor. In the early 2000's, larger companies seeking to buy the start-up emerged, and we represented the company in its sale, along with representing the principals in the consulting agreements and compensation packages they got.

My client took a large part of his proceeds from the sale to fund a private foundation we created to support performing arts (his passion) and health care initiatives; the foundation's assets are managed by my firm's wealth management affiliate. This foundation supports some of the major Boston cultural institutions, where the couple are well-known and recognized. My client also was the major donor for a performing arts center in the Catholic high school he attended, with him and his husband being honored in the dedication ceremony. Another major beneficiary of his generosity is a Boston area community health center, where he started his career in health care administration.

Throughout this time, I and colleagues at my firm represented the couple in their estate planning needs, along with providing advice to non-profits with which they were associated over the years.

In addition to becoming wonderful clients and friends, the couple also has been a great source of referrals—for example, I represented that health center when it built its current headquarters. And all this started over a house closing, at a time not all that long ago when two guys buying a house as a couple was unusual.

Donald Vaughan

Co-Chair, Real Estate

burnslev.com

Jillian Shipherd LGBT Program Director, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Shipherd is one of our strongest soldiers in the fight to ensure LGBT veterans receive the care and respect they deserve. The bisexual Albany, New York native is a clinical psychologist at the Women’s Health and Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD. She also directs the VA’s national LGBT program— developing organizational policies, healthcare provider trainings and clinical services that ensure LGBT veterans can access support in culturally competent ways. Shipherd is an expert on trauma issues, especially as they relate to marginalized communities, and is based in the VA Boston Healthcare System, where she drafted the first transgender health care policy for a VA in the country in 2007. This policy eventually served as a model for a national directive. In April, VA Boston earned a perfect score among 590 facilities rated by the HRC’s Healthcare Equality Index. Thanks to her, LGBT people who served our country can rest better assured they’ll be served in return.

How did you come to work for the VA’s LGBT program?

While I was in college I volunteered with a rape crisis center and really became passionate about helping trauma survivors in particular. There was a lot of unmet need there. Clinical psychology seemed like the best path forward to help people who had gone through the most difficult days of their life. So I was focusing on trauma recovery, specifically the relationship of mental and physical health in recovery, and that brought me [CONTINUES 60]

58 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Carl Streed Jr. Physician, researcher and chair of the LGBT Advisory Committee for the American Medical Association Streed saves LGBT lives—and he started with his own. Growing up gay in the religious community of Zion, Illinois, Streed once pulled himself back from the brink of a teenage suicide attempt. Now a fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, he’s a widely lauded advocate for LGBT people in healthcare, even recognized by the White House as a next-generation LGBT leader. He has dedicated his career to improving care and addressing LGBT-related healthcare disparities, working in HIV services (at Howard Brown Health Center, the largest LGBT-focused health center in the Midwest), impacting the culture at medical school (he worked to achieve transgender equity in health insurance at John Hopkins), engaging in groundbreaking research and presenting at international conferences. And as chair of the AMA committee, which steers the conversation around LGBT issues within the country’s largest physicians association, Streed helps prescribes inclusive solutions to medical systems that need improvement.

Did you ever have any experiences in the healthcare system that inspired your current work?

In college at the University of Chicago, I came down with a nasty viral illness. I noticed a few swollen lymph nodes. I went to the doctor at the student clinic. I remember that as soon as I mentioned I had a boyfriend, the doctor gave me this certain eye contact and told me I should have an HIV test. As a physician myself now, I understand that was a fine recommendation, but there are different ways of handling it. I wasn’t out to my parents yet, but I was on my parents’ health insurance; I couldn’t have an HIV test popping up. I asked her what to do. She said, “I don’t know.” Then she left the room and never came back. I wasn’t planning to be a doctor, but events like this inspired me.

What’s the nature of your role with the AMA? Our goal is to provide guidance to the board of trustees. We try to think about what kind of policies does the AMA have right now, and what are [CONTINUES 60]

MAY|JUN 2017 | 59

to this—because of lot of transgender people, including veterans, experience trauma in their lives.

How can being LGBT interact with trauma issues?

If you’re a member of any minority group, the stress and stigma that goes along with that really compounds both mental and physical health issues that people experience.

That’s true of gender minorities, it’s true of racial and ethnic minorities, and it’s true of the LGBT community.

For instance, we know it’s true that people get sicker in states where they don’t have the protection of laws and policies.

What’s a major challenge you face in your work?

We sometimes face a certain kind of veteran who says, “Why do we need extra resources for LGBT veterans?

What’s so special about them? Why

should we be paying you to do a project that isn’t necessary for everyone?” To those people I say, all veterans deserve respectful and quality healthcare, and for LGBT veterans that can only happen when there is education and cultural competency.

Are there any particular success stories that always stand out to you?

I’ve had a handful of veterans who have reached out to say that this program has been helpful—that they were feeling suicidal but found help through our advocacy and access to care. On one hand, that’s rewarding.

On the other, I don’t want them to have to contact me. It’s been happening less and less, because things are now getting managed out in the field. And that’s what I want. I would love for my job to be obsolete one day. [x]

they missing? What are the gaps?

How can we benefit the most people?

For instance, recently we focused on trans service members in the military, and helped get the policy passed that allowed them to serve openly—by speaking from a medical perspective, saying there’s no medical reason to disqualify them from service.

Can you give an example of how LGBT people experience health disparities?

There are a number of disparities we see regarding certain health conditions, like higher rates of cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Some might argue that it could be because we smoke more and drink more, but it’s there even when we start controlling for these factors. So what else are we missing in the research? How does community stress affect people in minority groups? [x]

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The Magic of Springtime in Salem Just 16 miles north of Boston, Salem is perfect for a day or a stay.

2017 marks the 325th anniversary of the Salem Witch Trials.

If you don’t know the story, or if you haven’t thought about it since eighth grade, this is a good time for a refresher.

The result of a social panic, the witch trials resulted in the accusation, imprisonment, and execution of innocent people. To connect the dots between 17th century Salem and current events, visit the Salem Witch Museum or take in one of the Salem Award Foundation’s Thursday afternoon Tent Talks at the Witch Trials Memorial.

Sightseeing in Salem is bound to make you thirsty, and the new Notch Biergarten would be happy to serve up a litre of locally brewed session beer. Located on the South River, Notch has become a fast favorite of locals for their great beer and the ambiance. If a more substantial meal (or cocktail) is what you seek, Pickering Wharf is right around the corner. Stop into Finz Seafood or Sea Level Oyster Bar for fresh seafood served harbor-side.

If you find yourself hungry on the other side of town, Turner’s Seafood at Lyceum Hall is fresh off the dayboat in Gloucester.

Salem’s collection of inns and hotels welcome you to make a day into an overnight stay. Salem’s newest boutique hotel, The Merchant features stunning interior design that compliments the historic house, and the second floor deck is the perfect place to unwind with a glass of wine (BYOB from The Cheese Shop or Pamplemousse) while the sun sets off in the distance.

If full-service is more your style, the contemporary Salem Waterfront Hotel & Suites has suites and mini-suites, an on-site gym and indoor pool. Centrally located, you can walk to everything in Salem, or you can pull up a cocktail next to the outdoor fire at The Regatta Pub.

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Salem, Massachusetts has become a unique culinary destination, and visitors can sample Salem’s savory side on a Salem Food tour. This delicious exploration of Salem’s spice trade history introduces visitors and locals to the contemporary chefs and shopkeepers who connect customers to locally sourced food and spirits, This afternoon tour is never the same experience twice, as tour host Karen Scalia features a different collection of tour partners from around town on each tour. You could find yourself walking from Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie on Derby Street to Salem Spice to Pamplemousse to Milk & Honey Green Grocer, or perhaps you will start at the Phillips House on Chestnut Street and stop into Life Alive and then The Cheese Shop of Salem. Whatever the arrangement, everyone learns something new about Salem on a Salem Food Tour, even locals!

Visit Salem.org for more information and to create your own spring or summer adventure in Salem.

Upcoming Events

Through June 11 WOW: World of Wearable Art at the Peabody Essex Museum May 5-7 Massachusetts Poetry Festival May 20–October 9 Ocean Liners: Glamour, Speed, and Style at the Peabody Essex Museum June 2-4 Salem Arts Festival June 8 Salem Farmers’ Market opens for the season June 17-19 Cry Innocent’s 25th Birthday Celebration June 24 North Shore Pride Parade Find all the details and create your own adventure on Salem.org

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Sarah Wright Board chair, Unmarried Equality Let’s get two things straight. First, Sarah Wright is not: She identifies as a lesbian, though sometimes considers bisexual more fitting. And two, she supports same-sex marriage. It’s a not-uncommon misconception that Unmarried Equality, which advocates for legal and cultural equity for content singles, committed unwed couples and polyamorous partners must be a romance-bashing anti-marriage crusade.

Not so, says Wright, who is in a long-term open relationship with another woman.

Marriage rates are falling, and some experts project they’ll essentially flatline by 2042.

So her organization only wants individuals and social institutions to recognize, through legal entitlements and simple respect, that modern loving relationships take many forms outside two-person matrimony—something that LGBT people, those who have always operated outside traditional heteronormative paradigms, ought to appreciate. Wright agrees the fight for marriage equality, for those who want it, was important. But she wants queer people, especially, to leave space for those who aren’t wedded to the idea.

Have you always felt marriage isn’t for you?

When I was young, I wanted to be a priest.

After the priest phase was over, I thought I’d be a nun. I never thought I would get married. It never occurred to me. I had this very Catholic worldview, but there were a couple things that didn’t make sense to me.

I remember learning that premarital sex was bad and wrong. I’d think, “Who said anything about marriage? If I don’t want to get married, I’ll never have sex?” By that time I had given up on my religious aspirations.

Do you think marriage equality dominated the conversation in LGBT rights to the disadvantage of other issues?

I used to say, frequently and provocatively, that we could have ended any number of fatal diseases, put an end to starvation. I know some of my friends thought I was needling them, and many of them told me to [CONTINUES 68] 64 | BOSTON SPIRIT

David Waters Executive director/CEO, Community Servings In the fickle, traditional hospitality industry, 25 years is an eternity. But this year, Community Servings, an innovative Boston-based nonprofit that was originally founded to provide healthful meals to those homebound with HIV/AIDS, celebrates the quarter-century anniversary of two signature food-focused events: May’s LifeSavor, a city-wide dinner party held among participating restaurants, and November’s Pie in the Sky sales drive.

Collectively they’ve raised many millions for Community Servings since David Waters, a restaurant industry vet who joined the organization at its 1989 inception, launched the fundraisers in 1993. Waters has been CEO since 1999, and his leadership molded Community Servings into a multi-faceted agency that still delivers free meals to the critically ill (about 560,000 meals annually, with aims to soon triple capacity), and now offers nutrition education, kitchen job training and health policy advocacy on behalf of sick, economically disadvantaged clients. This gay, married dad has many mouths to feed—and he does it with pride and passion.

How did working in the restaurant industry help you in the nonprofit world?

My background is unique. Other people might come into this role as community organizers but I came in as a food entrepreneur—and I think our growth has been in that context. I’ve tried to think about how we can fill a need in our community that fits with our talents. It started with feeding sick people, and now we’ve leveraged our expertise to things like job training, working with local farms and getting into healthcare research to prove the impact of medically tailored meals. It’s been interesting [CONTINUES 68]

MAY|JUN 2017 | 65

Tim McCarthy Gay video historian, archivist and filmmaker File under: Frequent flier. McCarthy’s passport has been stamped in 91 countries on all seven continents since April 1990, when he bought his first video camera and set out to document LGBT experiences around the planet. This artistic act was medicine to McCarthy, who had tested HIV-positive and found comfort in connecting with, learning about and sharing the stories of his global community—an idea reinforced by his involvement in the worldwide Radical Faeries movement of consciousness-building queers.

Today McCarthy, who lives in Provincetown, has many thousands of hours of footage from historic occasions—like the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s first trek abroad in 1991—and more recent travels: like trips to Uganda, where he gathered footage for his documentary “See Me As” about the life-endangering struggles of queer people there. Also featured in the awardwinning film “How to Survive a Plague,” about the rise of ACT UP, his archives immortalize an entire diverse culture.

What inspired to become a gay video historian?

I tested positive for HIV in May 1988. I live in a Christian, American, capitalist society—and in the ’80s, that society was telling me that this was God’s revenge. I know this is not true.

But it seemed the only empirical evidence to disprove that was to go to non-American, non-Christian and non-capitalist places and see how gay people existed—find evidence of our lives and their value. It was my selfish pursuit of discovering who I am before I died.

How did you come to your recent focus on Uganda?

In 1999 I got this idea to take my HIV back to its homeland, back to Africa. I went to Uganda, which is one of the first places where it first showed up in the human race in the late ’70s, when it was known as slim disease. Fast-forward 10 years, and Massachusetts’ own Scott Lively has gone there, [CONTINUES 69] 66 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Amir Dixon Artist, activist and program director, CONNECTED Boston Despite the impressive progress of the gay rights movement, there’s much more work to do—especially in addressing institutionalized racism that persists in all corners of America. Symptoms of that cultural sickness manifest in myriad ways—including the healthcare and social service disparities that Dixon addresses through CONNECTED Boston, a program of the Multicultural AIDS Coalition that brings community and resources to LGBTQ people of color, who are still disproportionately impacted by HIV and other issues. The organization hosts its annual summit in May. But beyond CONNECTED, Dixon does other important work toward dismantling systemic racism and heterosexism as both an activist and artist-filmmaker. One of his internationally screened films, “Friends of Essex,” which looks at the homophobia faced by queer men like him both within and without the black community, earned Dixon recognition from “The Advocate” in its “40 Under 40” lineup of LGBTQ leaders. He’s connecting the dots and breaking down barriers to create a more just world.

You told “The Advocate,” “I hope to set a national agenda for LGBTQ people of color that is inclusive to all of our experiences.” What does that agenda look like in 2017?

I think that agenda is different in many places but they all tie back to seeing the humanity in black people—both inside the black community and outside. White vigilantes need to stop killing black children. Black cisgender men need to see the humanity in black trans women.

What was the story you wanted to tell with “Friends of Essex”?

I was in my early twenties when I made that film. That time of my life was about [CONTINUES 69]

MAY|JUN 2017 | 67

shut up. And look, I support the right to marry. I support more choices for more people. I just wish we had backed into marriage more along the lines of expanding definitions of family.

Why is our culture so attached to marriage in its current definition?

I’m not sure. Marriage is an artificial relationship. Adam and Eve weren’t even married, if you believe in creationism! All marriages are arranged. Our Western understanding of arranged marriages, we look at other cultures and say those people are bad, that’s primitive, they’re anti-feminist.

We think we’re choosing marriage, but we’ve also

made it an economically irrational choice to be single. By opting out of marriage we’re not privy to the 1,500 benefits attached to marriage.

Is there still a case of marriage?

I think there are a lot of people who need marriage. I think they need it symbolically. It’s important in the context of their religious faith or personal traditions. I’m not saying we should abolish marriage. I do think we should be open to talking about abolishing marriage as a legal category. [x]

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my own response to the fear of HIV.

What do you remember about the early days of the AIDS crisis, and first discovering Community Servings?

What did you think about recent talk from the Trump administration on budget cuts to groups like Meal on Wheels, questioning whether they work?

It brings back nostalgia. It was a different world and it was different being gay.

We weren’t as assimilated as we are now, so there was an intensity to the sense of community—and as a young guy, I found my second family in that community. Because I was starting out in theater and restaurants during that scariest time of AIDS, there was a tremendous amount of loss in those communities.

So both communities were early to galvanize. I came to Community Servings to find

What kind of society are we if the sick are forgotten? I always think, “There but for the grace of god go I.” Any one of us could get sick, and if we didn’t have enough resources or networks of friends and family, we could suddenly be losing our home or facing incredible isolation. Our goal is to make sure people live with as much love and dignity as they can for as long as they can. [x]

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spreading that gay people are the devil. So in 2009 I reached out to my friends to say that I felt obligated to help.

Uganda healed me in so many ways; I wanted to work with them. For five years I involved myself in the group Voices of the Abasiyazzi, combating homophobia and training Ugandans to tell their own stories using modern technology. We’ve completed over 90 videos and interviews.

Complete this sentence: “See Me As…” A gay video historian dedicated to preserving our culture and history for future generations. My calling card is

actually shaped like a circle, which has many meanings. It is the diameter of my first video lens. The Radical Faeries only meet in circles, should to shoulder. And in my travels I circle the world.

understanding feelings and experiences I was having as a young black myself—and understanding those around me. The film, screenings and talkbacks really helped me understand the need for those who create art to address health equity and black people.

Why is this documentation so important?

What is the aim of CONNECTED Boston?

If you don’t document something, they can say it never existed—that it never happened. You get erased. You get marginalized. You get thrown away. So you keep evidence of what you’ve done, so it won’t be forgotten. [x]

Our team wanted Black and Latino gay and bi men in the Greater Boston area to know that we were here to support them. Over the last two years we have evolved our CONNECTED Boston summit to be intentional about including trans folks of color and the use of digital and social media as a HIV/STI prevention communication channel. This year’s summit will be held on May 13 at Whittier Street Health Center at 10 a.m..

How did the election impact your work, outlook, and approach to activism?

The election taught me that we have nothing to lose—really. It has made me realize that the current power and nonprofit structures are not built to help us. We are in a unique space take risks and try to figure out how we can use ever-evolving digital and global communication platforms to build, organize and sustain our communities.

Even in the face of the everprevailing reality that this is a violent global white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal society, I am reminded—that we are gonna be all good. [x]

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Izzy Berdan Artist, photographer and creative director, Aquitaine Group Berdan’s gregarious personality and signature style — including his handlebar mustache and frisky fashion sense — make him one of the most recognizable social butterflies in our local LGBT community. Now he’s a recognizable face around the world. In January, an Associated Press photo of Berdan from a Boston rally protesting Trump’s travel ban went viral across international newspapers and websites. In the candid image, Berdan’s face, wrapped in both an American flag and colorful Mexican serape, roars with inflamed passion. Expressing emotion is central to his life and work as an artist, as photo editor for “Take” magazine, a publication covering New England’s creative culture, and as a longtime member of the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, with whom Berdan documented in stunning imagery the first-ever Middle East tour by a gay chorus.

He also steers the creative direction of the Aquitaine Group, whose restaurants, including Metropolis, turned the South End gayborhood into a dining destination. Through art, he inspires.

You’re known for your joie de vivre.

Have you always been that way?

I was depressed growing up in Texas. I had a happy-go-lucky façade, but I knew if I stayed there it’d be the death of me. I threw myself into academics until I could get as far away as possible. I was the peaceful giant. Kids would yell “faggot” at me and I’d ignore it. I never claimed the title “queer” until I was out of that environment. My mom knew. She’d say to my aunt, “I think Izzy has some gay tendencies.” She’d reply, “I think Izzy has some straight tendencies!”

When you moved to Boston, you worked in the nightlife world.

[CONTINUES 74]

70 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Brianna Wu Software engineer and candidate for the US House of Representatives She made her name as a video game developer, but bullies are the real-life baddies against which Wu has always won. It started when she was growing up in Mississippi. When she came out as queer, her parents disowned her and she wound up homeless and living in her car. But she’s built a successful tech career, from the first startup she founded at age 19 to her Boston-based company Giant Spacekat, creator of awardwinning games like Revolution 60, a breakthrough female-centric hit. She battled bullies as one of the main targets of Gamergate, an alt-right fueled campaign of online harassment, death and rape threats and personal info dumps against woman in the gaming industry; she decided to set up a legal defense fund for other targeted women.

Now she’s running for Congress against incumbent Stephen Lynch, battling Trump-era bullies by pushing the Democratic Party to be bolder progressives. Game on.

What was it like growing up queer in Mississippi?

It was terrifying. As a child I knew I was very different from the other kids. There was overwhelming fear from the go. In third grade, I had a friend Joseph. I knew I was queer and we recognized that in each other. Joseph made the terrible mistake of telling his parents he believed he was gay. They instantly pulled him out of school. They sent him to this Christian psychological reprogramming, and I have nightmares about it to this day. He came back wearing this white seersucker [CONTINUES 74]

MAY|JUN 2017 | 71

Wilnelia Rivera Urban planner and project management consultant Rivera considers herself a bridge builder. To that end, her works takes many forms. She was the director of external affairs for former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and former political director for Neighbor 2 Neighbor, an organization galvanizing communities around issues of social and economic justice. Now, armed with a master’s in urban & environmental planning from Tufts University, Rivera, a former Mel King Fellowship recipient at MIT’s Co-Lab, where she developed research related to urban politics and community planning, works with clients across sectors to transform policies and practices and improve city life. Among her current work, she’s project manager of the BostonBRT campaign, a Barr Foundation-supported initiative to pilot bus rapid transit projects in the Bay State. She’s working with a major Brooklyn community health organization to strategize system improvements. And she’s passionate about mobilizing community and civic engagement in others – bridges that lead to a more equitable future for all.

How did you become so passionate about community building?

I grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts as the child of immigrants. When the world around us felt small and limiting, my mother kept me focused on the idea that there was something bigger beyond. She enrolled me in after-school programs to keep my eyes on the larger world and she’d take me to Boston for the day just to explore. I was raised with the mentality to do things that would better the community. Charity is great and we need that, but we also need to build pathways out of our realities.

How do you view your role as a leader?

For a whole new generation of leaders, those of us in our thirties and a bit older, our view leadership is different than traditional models. We don’t need to be the big boss to lead. I don’t need to be the CEO or president.

[CONTINUES 75] 72 | BOSTON SPIRIT

George Hastie Community organizer, consultant and project manager, Community Research Initiative of New England (CRI) Hastie has walked in many shoes, all of them his own. A queer transgender man, at various times in life he identified as bisexual and lesbian (he helped launch the Boston Dyke March), and his out HIV-positive status catalyzed a long career in AIDS advocacy (he helped start the Lesbian AIDS Project). Hastie’s understanding of the full breadth of LGBT experiences also inspired his many hats. Among them, Hastie, who transitioned in 2014, lobbied hard for the Massachusetts’ transgender rights bill, and the GLAD board member co-chaired a Treat Lipodystrophy Coalition that ensured insurance companies must cover treatment of the debilitating side-effect of HIV medications. At CRI, he manages a Department of Public Health-funded initiative to get people living with HIV enrolled in comprehensive insurance coverage that will help them live long, healthy lives. And through his own consulting firm he provides everything from grant writing to GLBTQ cultural competency trainings to nonprofits. By George, he does it all.

Did you have suport from your friends, family and community as you transitioned?

It was complicated by the fact that I broke up with my wife as I was acknowledging myself as male. I lost some friends related to the breakup, but I’m incredibly privileged and have had so many positive responses. My family came around, the majority of my friends were supportive, and being in Boston my whole life as an active [CONTINUES 75]

MAY|JUN 2017 | 73

Where else did you find community?

My other form of family was the chorus, which I joined about 16 years ago. I loved that the only common denominator was our love to sing. Other than that it was the most beautiful, super-diverse collection of human beings.

I have two sides to my brain: One where I love the spotlight and feeling I’m making a difference. But I also love the feeling of not mattering, like a grain of sand on a desert on a planet in a galaxy. There’s something freeing about putting on a tuxedo and singing along with 200 people as a single unit.

You have a strong personal brand.

How conscious of it are you?

Well, for instance, because of the political climate, I’ve been trying since November to wear a serape around town whenever I go out — just so people can visually see a giant Mexican walking down the street. But then I may also live in sweatpants for three days to store up the mental energy to go out in the world and be the Izzy that people expect of me.

One of my favorite places to be is on a friend’s sofa, watching TV. It’s up there with dancing on a box and having everyone look at me. They bring equal joy. [x]

suit and red bow tie, with chocolate for a girl. It was terrifying to see him turned into something he clearly was not.

He later committed suicide.

Does being queer impact your approach to campaigning?

When you’re queer you have to fight so hard to be yourself and to be authentic, and it’s such a victory to get to that point. I’m criticized in my campaign because I’m informal and direct in my messaging. The person you see on Twitter is who I am. I place a high premium on genuineness, and I hope that comes through with voters. To be honest, when you’ve been starving to death from being homeless, very little can scare you after that.

How did Trump’s election affect your decision to run?

I otherwise would not be running, to be straight up with you. I always suspected I’d run for office one day, but I’d had my fill of being a public figure. But the Trump election showed me that it’s all hands on deck. I was all-in on Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

I endorsed her and worked my butt off, but we lost — bigly. I asked myself, why is the Democratic Party failing?

I think it’s an inspiration problem. I think it’s a dream problem. It’s hard to get people to vote for someone who is a moderate, lukewarm, incremental-change kind of person. We need vision. I want to dream big. [x]

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You don’t even need to see my face! People are breaking things apart and finding different forms of leadership: decentralized models where people step up and step back depending on when you need to lead. That’s different than previous generations and cult-of-personality leaders. There’s a higher consciousness.

Do you encounter resistance in your work as a LGBT person of color?

Being in the spaces I’m in, which are somewhat monolithic in terms of the players, I wear my intersectionalism and use it to push my clients. They know I bring a broad perspective that most people aren’t bringing to the table. I have my immigrant hat. I have my LGBTQ status. I use it all to my advantage. I also work with Chica Project, a mentorship organization. A lot of young gay girls naturally gravitate to you when they see an open and respected adult in front of them. That means a lot. If I’d met someone like me when I was a teenager, I could have avoided a lot of mistakes. It’s not just about being out, it’s about loving yourself. [x]

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part of the LGBT community—plus I’ve been an AIDS activist in the field for 25 years—it was very positive. I wish my experience could be the norm.

When did you first get involved AIDS activism?

I actually did AIDS activism before I knew I was HIV positive. I joined ACTUP when I was in college. When I first got sick, the doctors told me nothing was wrong with me and it was all in my head. Then I found out I had symptoms of primary HIV infection. When I found out my status, I went to Fenway and had free care because I had no job and no insurance. I’m so inspired in my work today because I needed the help when I was young, and I feel fortunate to be in a position to be an advocate now.

Why was it so hard to get insurers to cover lipodystrophy, and what finally worked to pass the legislation mandating it?

We worked for four years to get this legislation passed, which is actually fairly quick: two legislative cycles. We had to tell our stories about this serious side effect of medication that should be covered. I had what is called a buffalo hump: over three pounds on my neck that caused it to jut out and gave permanent physical damage. When my insurance denied treatment, I appealed and was able to have mine removed. I remember showing a senator a “before” picture and them saying, “That’s not simply cosmetic.” It was really about making the issue clear and personal. [x]

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“Stronger together”

CULTURE Music STORY Loren King

Their Lives Are a Cabaret Provincetown festival celebrates both seasoned and rising performers It was legendary cabaret performer Carol O’Shaughnessy who inspired Patricia Fitzgerald to resume a cabaret career.

“I didn’t have to be a girl in a size 10 red dress. I could be myself,” says Fitzgerald of what she learned from O’Shaughnessy, a regular performer at Boston’s Club Cafe.

“I’m past my sell-by date but I can stand on a stage and hold an audience captive by telling stories through lyrics. Not anyone can do it, but [cabaret] is a doable art form if you’re willing to reveal yourself.”

Not only has Fitzgerald become a cabaret star in her

own right, performing in New York City, Boston and Provincetown, her mission as the producer of the Provincetown CabaretFest is to make cabaret enjoyable for audiences and accessible for aspiring performers. Through daily shows, workshops, master classes and the informal intimacy of the four- day event, cabaret is celebrated as both art form and means of self-expression.

“It’s not just about the voice,” says Fitzgerald. She cites Marcus Dagan, a Baltimorebased artist with a gravel voice reminiscent of Leonard Cohen, who is one of the fest’s

most popular acts. Dagan is one of 26 performers from around the country who’ll participate in the 17th annual CabaretFest taking place June 1-4 at Provincetown’s Crown and Anchor and other venues.

This year’s theme is the music of the World War II era.

The fest kicks off June 1 at 9 p.m. with “ Stage Door Canteen” at the Provincetown Theater. It’s an open mic hosted by Mark-Alan at which this year’s CabaretFest cast, accompanied by Brian Patton, will perform.

Songs of the 1940s will fill the Crown and Anchor on June 2 at 9 p.m. when Fitzpatrick hosts “Sentimental Journey,” a variety show that’s a CabaretFest tradition and features more than 20 performers.

Besides this year’s headliners, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, the lineup includes Fitzpatrick, Mark-Alan, Bonnie McLeod, Marcus Dagan, Dawn Derow, Jim Keating, Rod Ferguson, Lisa Jason, Lisa Gale Johnson, Barry Levitt, Jeff Mcauley, John O’Neil, Brian Patton, Warren Schein, Carol Montgomery-Forant, Joni Rapp, Lydia Sabosto, and Dave and Nancy Wilber.

Many of the festival’s artists such as Lisa Jason (a Judy Garland tribute), Rod Ferguson and Jeff Mcauley (a Dinah Shore tribute) will perform their own shows during the day on June 3, with the evening dedicated to the Lifetime Achievement Award Banquet, hosted by Warren Schein, honoring legendary

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John O’Neil, Patricia Fitzpatrick and Marilyn Maye cabaret artist Marilyn Maye at the Crown and Anchor. Maye, 88, is a regular performer at the Art House summer series in Provincetown and one of the premiere cabaret artists in the country after decades as an acclaimed recording artist and Broadway actress. The Kansas native appeared on “The Tonight Show” a record 76 times and earned a Grammy nomination as best new artist in 1966. Her more than 100 engagements just in the last nine years in New York include sold-out multiple-nights at the Metropolitan Room, Birdland, five two-week runs at Feinstein’s at The Loews Regency Hotel, New York’s Town Hall, and 54 Below where in 2015 “Marilyn Maye, Her Way: A Salute to Sinatra,” an eight-day engagement, drew standingroom-only audiences.

The Maye event will be followed at 10 p.m. by “Downton Abbey Road – the Best of Britain with Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano.” This popular and award-winning duo (married, to each other) will perform songs from Britain in the World War II era such as “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” “We’ll Meet Again” and “London Pride.”

“The USO Show,” hosted

by Fitzpatrick and longtime Boston and Provincetown performer John O’Neil at the Crown on June 4 (11 a.m.- 1 p.m.) will bring the festival to a close as all master class participants will join the Brian Patton Band (Brian Patton, Ron Ormsby and Alan Clinger) in performance.

It was O’Neil who first launched CabaretFest in 1999.

“He’s a force of nature,” says Fitzpatrick. But when the

event struggled after several years, Fitzpatrick, who’d worked for Provincetown’s tourism office before launching her own cabaret career, took over in 2015 as producer.

She brought O’Neil back as performer and workshop instructor, and she got the Provincetown Business Guild on board to help revive the festival.

“It’s not about bringing in top names from New York,” says Fitzpatrick, adding that for the past two years, she has not had to beg any performer to participate in the Provincetown CabaretFest. The most gratifying thing, she says, is watching performers hone their craft in workshops and master classes, and then blossom into solo performers.

“To me, that’s the point,” she says. [x]

www.provincetowncabaretfest.com

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CULTURE Music STORY Loren King

He’s Got the Beat Brian Calhoon’s untraditional musical journey returns to Club Café When he launched Marimba Cabaret, Brian Calhoon says it was his musical coming out.

A classically trained orchestral percussionist whose musical tastes span Broadway to karaoke, Marimba Cabaret has allowed Calhoon to blend his classical background with an eclectic mix of popular songs—not to mention his affinity for performing in a fierce pair of stiletto heels.

Calhoon’s unique arrangements of material ranging from Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” to Elton John’s “Your Song,” and his mastery of a relatively unusual instrument have proved a welcome addition to Boston’s cabaret scene.

A marimba, for the uninitiated, is sort of like a xylophone, except it’s larger with rosewood bars that the player strikes with a mallet.

A San Francisco native, Calhoon had early musical influences. “My grandmother was a musician and a choral conductor,” he says. Calhoon played piano as a kid but found it a chore to sit still, so

78 | BOSTON SPIRIT

he switched to drumming, which provided more physical engagement. Calhoon later studied classical percussion at San Francisco Conservatory. Percussion, Calhoon explains, is any instrument one hits, such as drums, cymbals, bongos, xylophone and, yes, the marimba. “Percussion is often the black sheep of an orchestra; it doesn’t have the repertoire of the cello, for instance,” he says. “The marimba is my primary instrument and the one on which I can express myself most fully.”

Calhoon moved to Boston to attend graduate school at Boston Conservatory.

He founded a quartet, Boston Percussion Group, and he worked steadily “playing in the pit for musicals” that came through town. But it wasn’t satisfying. “I wanted to be onstage,” he says.

Through the Boston percussion scene, Calhoon last year met Greg Jukes, a hybrid artist who performs internationally as one third of The Fourth Wall. He credits Brian Calhoon Jukes with the idea of constructing a show that mixed theatrical

Brian Calhoon and Greg Jukes. Photo by Dylan Sher.

[OPPOSITE] Calhoon in heels. Photo by Izzy Berdan.

“ Percussion is often the black sheep of an orchestra; it doesn’t have the repertoire of the cello, for instance,” he says. “The marimba is my primary instrument and the one on which I can express myself most fully. ” Brian Calhoon and musical performance. “I told Greg how I wanted to combine all my musical interests but I had a closed view of classical music,” Calhoon says. “Greg looked at me and said, ‘It’s called cabaret. You can combine all the music you love.’”

Calhoon and Jukes, who plays vibraphone and drums and directs the show, will return to Boston’s Club Café, where

Marimba Cabaret debuted in June of 2016, on April 13 and May 4 with special guests. Part of the appeal of Marimba Cabaret is that his show is ever changing and evolving, not just with different material but with a rotating list of guest artists drawn from Boston’s huge musical pool.

Each show has a theme, with songs and narration carefully chosen and arranged so that there’s an arc to the performance.

“I’m not necessarily telling a story; it’s more like little snapshots or a a musical tableaux,” says Calhoon.

The April 13 show is themed “coming out” and features as guest artist, composer Audrey Harrer on harp and voice. “I guarantee you’ve never seen a marimba, a vibraphone and a harp combo before,” notes Calhoon.

Among the songs he’ll perform include the “West Sid Story” classic “Something’s Coming”; Rufus Wainwright’s “The Art Teacher”; and a Whitney Houston mashup. On May 4, “Therapy” is the theme with Marimba Cabaret offering its interpretations of Radiohead’s”Creep”; Imogen Heap’s “Hide & Seek”; and “My PsychoGardner12-10-12R2_Gardnr_Dec2012R2 pharmacologist & I,” from the musical 12/11/12 2:15 PM Page 1

“Next To Normal” composed by Brian Yorkey. This performances features three guest vocalists: Sonja Tengblad, Sophie Michaux, and Christina English, who are known nationally as outstanding soloists and as part of the Lorelei Ensemble.

Calhoon attributes much of his onstage flair to his stint with the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus in 2013, when he made his “stiletto heels debut” as a marimba soloist. He says BCMC member Chad Weirick was performing as Liberace in a medley called “Candelabra Cantata” and Weirick asked Calhoon to join him in a battle of dueling keyboards. The mix of visual playfulness, theatricality and accomplished musicianship gave Calhoon a new stage persona and laid the foundation for Marimba Cabaret.

“I feel like I’ve discovered a passion project,” he says. “I just want to share it with a wider audience. It’s different every time; we mix it up, so you can see it again and again.” [x]

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CULTURE Music STORY Loren King

Martha Graham Cracker,

Pun Intended Martha Graham Cracker, the “Drag Queen King of Philadelphia,” takes over Oberon His name alone—and it is his real name—conjures up the exotic and the playful, like a drag queen should. But Dito van Reigersberg isn’t an ordinary drag queen. Not only does he do all his own singing, and very well, his cabaret persona of Martha Graham Cracker is six-foot-two with chest and shoulder hair visible

from his glittery gown. Rather than impersonating anyone or anything, he is one of a kind, pushing the boundaries of gender and performance.

And it’s been working well.

For 11 years, Martha Graham Cracker, accompanied by a four piece band, has been a fixture at at L’Étage, a nightclub and cabaret in van

80 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Reigersberg’s adopted home of Philadelphia (the Philadelphia Inquirer named him the “Drag Queen King of Philadelphia”) as well as fre-quent gigs at the uber-hip Joe’s Pub in New York City.

Joe’s Pub frequently serves as a pipeline to the American Repertory Theatre’s Oberon club, notes van Reigersberg,

so Martha Graham Cracker seemed a natural fit for the Cambridge venue. He’ll perform “Martha Graham Cracker: Things Aren’t Always What They Seem” for one show only, June 15 at 7:30 p.m.

But don’t expect an impersonation of the modern dance legend.

“There’s an amazing person, Richard Move, who does an incredible impersonation of her. Mine is more an homageslash-joke,” says van Reigersberg. “I love puns; some say it’s the highest and others say it’s the lowest form of humor, so I thought, Martha Graham— Graham cracker. I went to the Graham dance school to study in the mid-90s after she’d died and there were all these stories about her … I’ve always been fascinated by divas; these ‘30s and ‘40s women who speak their minds and are forceful and can be cruel and exciting.

And she seemed like one.

“She invented her own dance vocabulary; her own technique; she created dances.

People thought she was insane or a genius. She was often lonely, drinking too much, unlucky in love. I think of her as a talisman for a drag queen though not someone I’m imitating.”

Martha Graham Cracker grew out of van Reigersberg’s acting and performance art background. He’s one of the founding artistic directors of Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theater Company which he started in 1995 with friends from his Swarthmore College days. After college, there was a stint in New York City where he studied dance and acting, but van Reigersberg chose Philly as the launching pad for Pig Iron, which is still going strong after more than two decades.

“We chose Philadelphia and it’s become a mecca for culture and cabaret. We’re proud of

how much the arts have grown here,” he says.

Martha Graham Cracker is a “moonlighting” gig for van Reigersberg but she’s got Pig Iron’s edge and sense of adventure. After 11 years of performing together, the Martha Graham Cracker band has about 250 songs in its repertoire. “We do our own arrangements. I like to make songs you know sound unfamiliar or new again. It’s fun to turn a Madonna song into a touch song,” he says.

Another favorite is Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer.”

“The bass player stripped it down and arranged it in a way that’s poignant. He listened to the Smiths and cribbed a bass line. It’s one of my favorite arrangements,” he says. “It’s always exciting to take a song with a lot of production and strip it down, it makes it more intimate and [suited to] cabaret.”

Van Reigersberg doesn’t dance, but climbs—around the stage, on tables, even on some of the patrons. “There’s a lot of audience interaction but nothing scary,” he laughs.

“I love attacking the space, breaking the rules. The audience helps me; I grip columns—I make it ridiculous.

I wear four-inch platforms and I’m tall so it’s exciting to traverse the space and climb things but I try not to fall on anybody.” And all the while, he’s singing or bantering with the crowd.

“I improvise and play off what I see and what the audience gives me. … that’s what keeps people coming back: this person is in free-fall, clinging from thing to thing, and the show structures itself. There’s freedom—that’s the part I like.”

It’s easy to see the gay in Martha Graham Cracker, but for van Reigersberg it’s more than meets the eye.

“When people meet me, they are surprised that I’m soft-spoken. Yes, I’m different from her! She comes into a room and everything belongs to me, it’s my kingdom. That’s why she attacks the furniture,” he says.

“I do think the character exists because of my gay sensibility and she exists because, in a way, it’s the most gay part of me; the part that’s flirtatious, willing to take risks, be ridiculous and out there and maybe the most aggressive part of me,” he says. “She’s powerful, female, there’s chest hair but I’m fully made up and in a wig. I love the vibration that what you are watching isn’t stable even as you look.

Is it a man? A woman? I can hear the man coming though or I can believe in the illusion.

There is something about that instability that excites me. It’s also a feeling of reckless abandon and the feeling of being naughty in public. That feels gay; the opposite of closeted.

I’m taking up all the space in the room.”

Although this is Martha Graham Cracker’s debut at Oberon, van Reigersberg has performed in the past at Boston University and more recently at the Villa Victoria Center for the Arts when Martha was the featured entertainer for Grub Street’s annual Muse and the Marketplace literary event. “There was a moment when I turned to the audience and said, ‘Alright, you erudite motherfuckers!’ Supposedly, ‘erudite motherfuckers’ became the name of a literary group that formed during that conference,” says van Reigersberg. “I inspired the name. You never know when you make an impact.” [x]

CULTURE Stage STORY Loren King Jennifer Ellis PHOTO Teradat Santivivut

Our Fair Lady Jennifer Ellis, Boston’s premiere musical theater actress, helps build ‘Bridges’ Jennifer Ellis, Jen to all who know her, is so convincing as an Italian that when she played Barbara DeMarco in the longrunning “Shear Madness” at both Boston’s Charles Playhouse and off-Broadway, many people assumed she was from the North Shore or Staten Island, respectively.

82 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Then again Ellis, an Elliot Norton and IRNE Award winner for her Eliza Doolittle in the Lyric Theater’s acclaimed 2015 production of “My Fair Lady,” also made everyone believe she was a Cockney London flower peddler who blossoms into a genteel lady. “That was the perfect

coming together of one of my favorite directors, Scott Edmiston, and one of my favorite shows of all time … so it was just an incredible experience,” she says. Add to that the fact that Ellis credits Julie Andrews—Broadway’s original “My Fair Lady”—for getting her hooked on musical theater as a kid growing up in Whitman on the South Shore. “I watched ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘Mary Poppins’ so much the VHS wore out,” Ellis says.

Ellis will again dust off an accent and channel her inner Italian as she displays her acting and vocal chops as Francesca, the Italian-American midwestern farm wife who falls for a world-weary photographer named Robert in Speakeasy Stage Company’s production of “The Bridges of Madison County” running May 6–June 3.

Based on the mega-bestseller by Robert James Waller, who died earlier this year, the musical by the Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning team of Marsha Norman ( “‘night, Mother”) and Jason Robert Brown (“The Last Five Years,” “Parade,” “Songs for a New World”), will be directed by M. Bevin O’Hara and co-stars New York actor Christiaan Smith, making his Speakeasy debut, as Robert; and local favorites Christopher Chew as Francesca’s husband Bud; along with Kerry A, Dowling and Will McGarrahan.

This will be Ellis’s third musical with Speakeasy. In 2011, she played Claudia in “Nine” (yes, another Italian accent).

Five years later, she delivered her IRNEnominated turn as Cathy Whitaker, a ‘50s suburban homemaker married to a gay man, in Scott Frankel and Michael Korie’s “Far from Heaven.”

“Anything Kelli O’Hara does, I’m going to have my eye on,” jokes Ellis, whose vocal range and depth is reminiscent of the Tony Award-winning O’Hara who starred in “Bridges of Madison County” on Broadway and in “Far From Heaven” off-Broadway.

In “Bridges of Madison County,” Ellis gets a layered role that challenges her both as a singer and an actress. “I found out a year ago that I was going to do it and it couldn’t get here fast enough. Musically, it’s a joy to sing and character-wise, she’s just such a deep, interesting person,”

she says. “The subject is romantic but somewhat controversial; you find yourself rooting for Francesca despite the fact that she’s cheating on her husband. It’s relatable, whether you see yourself in Francesca, which many do, or as Bud or Robert.”

Although Ellis has acted with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, it’s as a musical theater actress that she’s made her mark. Singing was her first love, she says, starting as a five-year-old in the church choir, but she didn’t perform on stage until high school. “I fell into it as a way to sing. We did ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ and Shakespeare. I was lucky that my Dad ran for school committee and advocated for the theater program to get the same funding that the sports teams got. It was great of him to step up and say that theater is as important as sports.”

At Bridgewater State University, she majored in communications but found her calling in numerous campus productions.

“I learned from doing,” she says.” I got to be in everything, so after five years I had a lot of performance experience. In a more

“ I found out a year ago that I was going to do it and it couldn’t get here fast enough. Musically, it’s a joy to sing and character-wise, she’s just such a deep, interesting person. ” Jennifer Ellis competitive program, I would have been too shy in my freshman year to try out for anything.”

Her musical theater resume is already rich with classic roles from the Broadway canon.

After “Bridges,” Ellis will star in Stoneham Theatre’s production of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s

fresh-from-its-Broadway-revival-musical “She Loves Me,” about co-workers in a department store who fall in love with each other without knowing it through anonymous lonely heart letters. De’lon Grant, who recently starred as Haywood in Speakeasy’s much-heralded “The Scottsboro Boys,” will play Ellis’s love interest. Even though the musical will mark their first time as co-stars, Ellis and Grant performed together six years ago in a local cabaret series.

It’s those enduring connections that make Boston such a rewarding place to work, she says. In “Bridges,” Ellis will reunite with two past co-stars. “I just saw Chris Chew, who was my Henry Higgins [in ‘My Fair Lady’] and he said, ‘I can’t believe you’re going to cheat on me!’ And Kerry Dowling is playing my best friend; we were in ‘Far From Heaven’ and ‘The Most Happy Fella’ together and she’s such a happy presence to have around. I do audition in New York but I feel, well, at home here,” she says. “We all know each other and it’s so supportive. Community is family.” [x]

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“The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson,” [OPPOSITE] “Mr. Roosevelt” and “Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer”

CULTURE Film STORY Loren King

Summer Cinema LGBT history, Sofia Coppola among the highlights of this year’s PIFF There are innumerable reasons to head to Provincetown in June. But for film buffs, and for LGBT film buffs in particular, there’s one very good reason: the 18th annual Provincetown International Film Festival, running June 14–18.

There’s always plenty of solid LGBT content in this festival and this year is no exception. At the top of the must-see list the new documentary “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson” from writer-director David France (whose critically-lauded “How to Survive a Plague” about AIDS activism earned an Oscar nomination in 2013). Produced by Provincetown resident L.A. Teodosio (she also produced the LGBT-themed features “AWOL” and “Love is Strange”), the film is about Marsha P. Johnson, the legendary “drag queen,” Stonewall veteran, and co-founder of the trans-rights movement who was found dead in the Hudson River 24 years ago. Johnson’s best friend and fellow activist Sylvia Rivera, devastated

84 | BOSTON SPIRIT

by Johnson’s death, died a few years later. Now, as decades-old interviews and never-before-seen video footage have surfaced, contemporary trans activists dig through the clues in search of justice for Johnson and Rivera. Like “How to Survive a Plague,” France’s new film promises a vital history lesson and a new connection to the movement’s first leaders.

The opening night selection is the comedy “Mr. Roosevelt,” fresh from Austin’s SXSW. It’s the feature debut from writer, director and star, Noël Wells, who will be in attendance. Wells, co-star in the Netflix series “Master of None” and a “Saturday Night Live” cast member during the 2013-14 season, plays struggling comedian Emily Martin who returns to her college town of Austin Texas after a loved one falls ill. Once home, she must come to terms with her past while staying with her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend.

This year’s annual “Filmmaker on the Edge” award, which draws A-listers to the

PIFF, is Sofia Coppola, whose new, muchanticipated film “The Beguiled” starring Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Colin Farrell, is due in theaters at the end of June. Coppola, whose acclaimed 2003 film “Lost in Translation” earned her a best screenplay Oscar and made her one of the few women directors nominated in that Oscar category, adapted Thomas Cullinan’s novel about a sheltered girls’ school in Virginia during the Civil War. The girls and their teachers take in a wounded Union soldier and hold him captive, filling their cloistered world with sexual tensions, rivalries and surprising twists.

The Filmmaker on the Edge recipient engages in an on-stage conversation at Town Hall during the awards ceremony.

Coppola’s film is a remake of the wellregarded but under-appreciated (by audiences when it was released) 1971 version of “The Beguiled” starred Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page. Directed by Don Siegel, the film was groundbreaking for its haunting mix of the erotic and the disturbing.

Actress and director Chloë Sevigny will receive the PIFF’s Excellence in Acting Award.

Sevigny is best known for her Oscarnominated and Golden Globe-winning performance in Kimberly Peirce’s landmark “Boys Don’t Cry” playing the love interest of Oscar-winner Hilary Swank’s real-life transgender male Brandon Teena.

She also earned a Golden Globe for her indelible role on the HBO series “ “Big Love.” Sevigny will soon be seen as the notorious Lizzie Borden in Craig William Macneill’s gothic thriller “Lizzie” opposite Kristen Stewart as Borden maid Bridget Sullivan, who testified at Lizzie’s murder trial. Early descriptions of the film’s

central relationship between Lizzie and Bridget, sound deliciously provocative: “What begins as innocent companionship eventually escalates into attraction, love, and bloody vengeance.”

Other notable documentaries in the festival include Jennifer Kroot’s “The Untold Tale of Armistead Maupin” which was a recent hit in the Boston LGBT film festival. It celebrates the prolific writing career of author Armistead Maupin, best known for his “Tales of the City” novels that began as a newspaper column for The San Francisco Chronicle in 1976. Maupin’s own life “tales,” however, though less known, are just as strange as his fiction.

“Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer,” directed by David Barba and James Pellerito, profiles star dancer Marcelo Gomes, a versatile leading man and, arguably, the best partner of his generation.

The filmmakers take the audience on an intimate journey from Gomes’s native Brazil to the stage of the Metropolitan and beyond to show just how much dedication and discipline are required to reach the top and how much physical stress is imposed on the body in the process, even a perfect one like his. [x]

For a complete schedule go to www.ptownfilmfest.org

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CALENDAR PWR BTTM

On some level, fluid expressions of gender and sexuality have always had a home in punk rock—now more than ever, since younger generations are increasingly eschewing narrow definitions when self-identifying. Take Ben Hopkins and Liv Bruce, two genderqueer musicians in their twenties who together form PWR BTTM, a queer punk act whose new album, “Pageant,” drops in May. Hopkins and Bruce are both Massachusetts natives, but they’re now based in Brooklyn and have earned a loyal following for their super-catchy indie rock and eye-catching predilection for pseudo-drag and glitter-covered beards. Their pounding guitars, drums and vocals take crowds for a ride through sonic subversion. More power to ‘em.

WHEN

WHERE

HOW

Monday, June 19 (Boston); Paradise Rock Club, Boston; pwrbttmband.org Tuesday, June 20 (Providence) Columbus Theatre, Providence

‘Hedwig & the Angry Inch’ Make a date with your “Sugar Daddy” and score tickets to “Hedwig,” the now-iconic rock musical about the titular queer performer, a glam East Berlin-born singer who shares with audiences her fascinating life story—one that includes a botched sex reassignment surgery, hence the title. Ultimately, “Hedwig” is a story about self-love and finding completeness in one’s self; it’s also a kickass Tony-winning stage show (adapted as an acclaimed film) with boundless energy, lots of laughs, and—underneath Hedwig’s big blonde wig—a ton of heart that beats like a kick drum.

Boston Pride

WHEN

WHERE

HOW

May 30–June 11

Shubert Theatre, Boston

bochcenter.org

FULL SCHEDULE ON PAGE 61

“Stronger Together” is this year’s Boston Pride theme, and it’s a timely one considering the current political forces that are seeking to splinter Americans apart. And with anti-LGBT forces emboldened by the current administration, complacency isn’t an option. Luckily, Pride season always proves that social activist hats and dancing shoes actually go quite well together. So do both, then hit the streets, clubs and community centers of Boston for this year’s lineup of Pride events, which will include the annual float-filled parade and entertainment-packed festival, plus a diverse array of programming across the city. There’s strength in numbers, so show up—and be counted.

WHEN

June 2–11 WHERE

Throughout Boston HOW

bostonpride.org

Amanda Palmer and Edward Ka-Spel Bisexual Boston native Amanda Palmer has made a name for herself as performance artist and a musician (solo and as part of the Dresden Dolls, her dark cabaret duo). But now the frequently edgy, occasionally controversial indie rock darling has teamed up with another eccentric artist—Edward Ka-Spel, lead singer of trippy art-pop act the Legendary Pink Dots—for a full-length album. “I Can Spin a Rainbow,” out in May, distills state-of-the-world fears and anxieties into a set of simultaneously scary and hopeful songs.

They’re supporting the record with a small tour, and theirs is definitely a collaboration that is worth catching live.

Provincetown Paracon Attention, gay ghost-busters: Strap on your Proton Pack and head to P’town, because Sam Baltrusis, out local author of “Paranormal Provincetown,” has organized a multi-day series of events that will appeal to amateur spook hunters and fans of eerie things that go bump in the night. Guests will also get to meet gay paranormal investigator Adam Berry, a Provincetown resident and star of television shows like TLC’S “Kindred Spirits” and SyFy’s “Ghost Hunters.” The reputedly haunted Provincetown Inn will serve as home base, and spirited sleuths will go on a guided ghost hunt, take part in a day-long lecture and event series, and even show off their “Thriller” dance moves during a “Black Carpet” bash.

WHEN

WHERE

HOW

May 12–14

Provincetown Inn

provincetownparacon.com

WHEN

WHERE

HOW

Wednesday, May 17

Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge

amandapalmer.net

Drag Divas Give Back “Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.” Those now-famous words open every episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” But for this event, New England’s best queens are revving up audiences for less competitive reasons. Drag Divas Give Back is an annual fundraiser to benefit the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, and this year’s installment will bring together glittery gals like Kris Knievil, Severity Stone, Violencia Exclamation Point and many more as they sashay, shante and stir up excitement to support one of our region’s most vital nonprofits. Add drag brunch mainstay Verna Turbulence as host, and you’ll want to buckle up for a wild ride ahead.

WHEN

WHERE

HOW

Tuesday, June 6

Club Café, Boston

masstpc.org

º

Super Gay Comedy Fun Time

NAGLY 25Th Anniversary Concert with Jennifer Holliday And we are telling you—you’ll want to be going to this special soiree honoring the anniversary of the North Shore Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth (nAGLY). Not only does the awesome organization do great work on behalf of the region’s queer youth, but they’ve brought in a special guest to help celebrate: original “Dreamgirls” star Jennifer Holliday. Earlier this year, the Tony- and Grammy-winning artist pulled out of performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration and cited her LGBT fans for inspiring her to reconsider. She’s clearly working hard to reaffirm her support for the community, and will be joined at this musical benefit by “Glee” star Alex Newell (a North Shore native), New England cabaret legend John O’Neil and noir neo-soul band What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? fronted by queer singer 3rian King.

WHEN

WHERE

HOW

Saturday, May 13

North Shore Music Theatre, Beverly

nsmt.org

The LGBTQ community has always shown a sense of humor. After all, laughter is the best medicine when you find yourself on the receiving end of society’s slings and arrows. Prepare for some queer-themed gut busting with this night of standup, sketch acts and storytelling produced by gay funnydude Kevin Quigley, a regular on the local comedy circuit. It’ll be super. I’ll be gay. And it’ll be fun(ny).

WHEN

Friday, June 2 WHERE

ImprovBoston, Cambridge HOW

improvboston.com

NoH8 Campaign

Martha Graham Open Photo Shoot Cracker Cabaret It’s big (six-feet tall), it’s blonde (except for the chest hair), and it’s bawdy. It’s Martha Graham Cracker, a popular (and hirsute) Philadelphia drag cabaret performer known for music, comedy and clever repartee. Tonight’s show, dubbed “Things Aren’t Always What They Seem,” promises to bring plenty of song and signature wit from Cracker, whose unique career has previously included a yearlong artist-in-residence role at the National Museum of American Jewish History. Cracker will only visit Cambridge for one night though, so bite on these tickets while you can.

Does your Facebook photo need a refresh? Join the star-studded ranks of those who have posed for photographer Adam Bouska’s now-iconic NOH8 campaign—like Boston celebs Eliza Dushku and Tom Bergeron, to name a few. Show up wearing white, affix a provided temporary tattoo and duct tape, and strike a pose that shows support for LGBTQ rights. Maybe one day the NOH8 team will collaborate with Instagram on a special filter—but until then, here’s your chance to get their signature (and very flattering) style of photo in a snap. (More info available at noh8campaign.com)

WHEN

Thursday, June 15 WHERE

Oberon, Cambridge HOW

cluboberon.com

WHEN

Friday, May 26 from 5-8 PM WHERE

W Boston Hotel, 100 Stuart Street HOW

Solo photos $40, group shots $25/person

SCENE Benefit PHOTOS Marilyn Humphries

Taste of the South End Cyclorama | Boston | March 21, 2017

AIDS Action Committee brought together more than 40 of the 21st-annual South End’s finest restaurants at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama for a delicious evening of bite-sized noshes, live cooking demonstrations, a silent auction, raffle, as well as wine tastings and beer sampling.

Members of the Host Committee [FROM LEFT:] Matt Fecteau, Paul Lynch, Tristan Rushton, Douglas Spencer (co-chair), Areeg Eluri, Pia Thakore Miller (co-chair), Jeremey Jih, Karen Young, Peter LePage and Sue Platt.

Members of the Host Committee [FROM LEFT:] Paul Twitchell, Pia Thakore Miller (co‑chair), Tristan Rushton, Matt Fecteau, Terron Hill, Sharon Thompson, Donna Venegas, Carl Sciortino (executive director, AIDS Action Committee), John Meyer and Mike Robert.

MAY|JUN 2017 | 89

SCENE Celebration PHOTOS Marilyn Humphries

Beacons of Light Courtyard Downtown | Boston | March 21, 2017

A great night to honor champions of our community, MassEquality’s signature event celebrates the exceptional leadership, voice and advocacy of individuals and organizations that have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to bettering the lives of the LGBTQ community. The guest of honor was Senate President Stan Rosenberg, who received MassEquality’s Political Icon award. The Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth (BAGLY) received the Community Icon award, and the Lesbians of Color Symposium (LOCOS) Collective received special recognition.

Voices Rising women’s chorus serenaded the festivities.

90 | BOSTON SPIRIT

SCENE Benefit PHOTOS Marilyn Humphries 2

Fenway Health Men’s Event Marriott Copley Place | Boston | March 11, 2017

More than 1,300 gay and bisexual men, transgender people, friends, supporters and volunteers made the 2017 Men’s Event a huge success again this year. Such awesome community support raised a record-breaking $700,000 in cash and pledges to support the life-saving services and programs at Fenway Health. The Hat Sisters received the Congressman Gerry E. Studds Award. Commediene host John Early, the First Class Band and Concetta provided the entertainment. And the food, cocktails, schmoozing, and dancing was as great as ever at this annual black-tie affair. The organizers extend sincere thanks to all table captains, the event team, corporate sponsors and the art advisory committee for curating the art collection for this year’s silent auction. Plus special thanks goes out to Event Chairs Steve Dyer, Ryan Gosser and Maurice Maxie, whose hard work made the night possible.

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Tim O’Connor accepts The Congressman Gerry E. Studds Award on behalf of The Hat Sisters. [ LEFT TO RIGHT] Harry Collings, Dean Hara, Tim O’Connor, Angela Menino, Fenway President & CEO Stephen L. Boswell and Fenway Board Chair Robert Hale.

Fenway Health Board Chair Robert H. Hale.

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Fenway Health President and CEO Dr. Stephen Boswell greets Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.

Men’s Event emcee John Early of the TBS comedy “Search Party.”

Men’s Event Co-Chairs Maurice Maxie, Ryan Gosser and Steve Dyer.

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Members of the Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Convent of the Commonwealth.

Men’s Event attendees.

First Class Band and Concetta.

Guests danced until the wee hours of the night.

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MAY|JUN 2017 | 91

WHERE YOUR FAMILY IS PART OF OURS. Welcome to your medical home, where your primary care team will always have your back.

Book your checkup at bmctogether.org

SCENE Gala PHOTOS Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Gala Mandarin Oriental Hotel | Boston | April 1, 2017

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company held its 2017 Gala on April Fool’s Day with hundreds of guests braving the Fool’s Day snowstorm in order to attend and be entertained by CSC2 company, offering popular scenes from Shakespeare plays. The gala was the highest grossing in CSC history, raising funds that will be invested into CSC’s 22nd season of Free Shakespeare on the Common next July/August, when CSC welcomes upwards of 75,000 Greater Bostonians to enjoy free theater under the stars for Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet.”

CSC Artistic Director Steve Maler, Tony Liquori and Paul Karger

Jonathan Soroff and friends.

92 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Derek Song and Tivon Marcus.

Julie Hume Gordon Aisha, Al Riyami, Dianna Reza, Uzo Errlingsson and Sofia Ostrer.

Ricardo Rodriguez, Casey Cochran and Joshua Carr.

MAY|JUN 2017 | 93

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SCENE Benefit PHOTOS Marilyn Humphries

Fenway Health Dinner Party Marriott Copley | Boston | April 8, 2017

More than 1,200 lesbians, bisexual women, transgender people, friends, supporters and volunteers attended the 2017 Dinner Party. Ann Maguire received the Dr. Susan M. Love Award. Lea DeLaria headlined, and the First Class Band and Concetta kept everyone dancing into the wee hours. A record-breaking $575,000 and counting (at the time this issue went to press the grand total had yet to be tallied) in cash and pledges was raised to support the life-saving services and programs at Fenway Health

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94 | BOSTON SPIRIT

Lea DeLaria Concetta from First Class Band Fenway’s Director of Women’s Health Dr. Jennifer Potter pays tribute to Judy Bradford, PhD, co-chair of The Fenway Institute who passed away from cancer earlier this year.

Vengerflutta Smith with Genelle Bishop.

Co-chairs Beth Pilgrim, Bren Cole and Diane Tucker.

Dr. Stephen L. Boswell, Fenway Health President & CEO Lea DeLaria with Karen Akunowicz of Top Chef and Myers & Chang fame.

SCENE Community PHOTOS Courtesy of Isatta Coomber

JFK Library | Boston | April 1, 2017

Members of the Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast Committee with [FROM LEFT] Bayard Rustin Award for Courage Awardee Lawrence Vinson, Harold du Four-Anderson, keynote speaker Miriam Vega PhD, Philip Robinson, Jack Casey, Kimberly Wilson, Gabryelle Estrada, Jonathan Reveil, Dwayne Steward, Roger Carter and Belynda A. Dunn Award for Courage Awardee Jennease Hyatt.

The theme was “In Solidarity, Uniting to End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic” at the 28th annual Bayard RUstin Breakfast, celebrated at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Dr. Miriam Vega, CEO of the University Muslim Medical Association Community Clinic of Los Angeles, delivered the keynote. The breakfast maintains a tradition of commemorating and celebrating the life and work of Rustin, one of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. Created by AIDS Action Committee, the annual event recognizes the roles of LGBT people from communities of color in the fight against AIDS.

Students from Babson College

Bayard Rustin Community Breakfast

LET’S DANCE!

www.mochadj.com INFO@MOCHADJ.COM

CODA Music STORY Scott Kearnan B-52 frontman Fred Schneider with bandmates Cindy Wilson (left) and Kate Pierson. Photo courtesy of the band.

[SPIRIT] What is it like being an out artist now, compared to 40 years ago?

Cosmic Thing B-52’s front guy spreads the message of queer across space and time His voice is unmistakable and his rollicking party tunes are indelible. Fred Schneider is the ever-fabulous frontman of The B-52s, one of the coolest and campiest bands of all time. It’s one of the queerest, too. Schneider is gay, and so is guitarist Keith Strickland. Founding member Ricky Wilson was gay; he died of AIDS in 1985. And vocalist Kate Pierson is bisexual, married to her longtime partner Monica Coleman.

From “Rock Lobster” to “Love Shack” and from bouffant hairdos to hot pants, the Georgia-bred band has kept us dancing our mess around for 40 years, since their first show together on Valentine’s Day, 1977. They’re still touring, and reach New England for five shows in June— including two at Boston’s Symphony Hall (June 13 and 14), where they’ll offer special performances backed by the Boston Pops Orchestra. .They’ll also play the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center in New Bedford, Massachusetts on June 3, the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire on June 4 and the Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, Connecticur on June 5.

Schneider is no stranger to Boston. He says he has plenty of friends in town, and

his local connections have made him a longtime supporter of Community Servings, the Boston-based nonprofit originally founded to provide home-delivered meals to those with HIV/AIDS. We spoke with Schneider about 40 years in the biz, the B52s’ gayest jams, and the secret to sticking around.

[SPIRIT] How do you reinvent your

songs for the orchestra?

[FRED SCHNEIDER] We have an arranger in Atlanta who arranges our material for the orchestra. We have to work to remember the new structures; otherwise we’d still play the songs the old ways.

It’s just a blast to hear the orchestra behind us. Everyone has to step up to the plate even more. It makes for a great experience—and we really get along with all the orchestra members.

[FS] It’s a lot different. I think when we started even Elton John was in the closet. [Elton John came out as bisexual in “Rolling Stone” in 1976. He told the magazine he was gay in 1988.]

It’s like night and day. Everyone had their own reasons for being private back then. People knew that some of us were gay. I always said I was trisexual: I’ll try anything once. [Laughs] It’s so much different now. I can go on TV and talk about it whereas the homophobia would be a lot worse then.

[SPIRIT] The band served as guest judges on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” this season. How was that? Are you a fan of the show?

[FS] I think it’s a hoot! I’ve known Ru for years. We used to ride the 14th Street bus together! I’d see her and Lady Bunny on it back in the early ’80s. Ru is a great guy. He’s in our “Funplex” video and our “Love Shack” video, which was before he really skyrocketed. Being on the show was just a ton of fun.

[SPIRIT] When you started, some critics found you too weird and out there. Now, like drag, you’re more embraced by the mainstream.

Would you ever have expected that?

[FS] At our shows we really have always had all ages and all types of people—even early on when we played all the small and dumpy clubs. We’ve always had a really diverse audience, from housewives to teenagers from horrible, fundamentalist towns in the Midwest and South who’d come up after shows to say “thank god you came around, you made my life tolerable.’”

[SPIRIRT] Your Boston shows come right after Boston Pride. This year’s theme is “Stronger Together.” What has kept The B52s strong together for 40 years?

[SPIRIT] Life is certainly feeling less tolerable for many people now, given the political climate. Do you think it’s important to speak out politically as artists?

[FS] I think it goes back to the fact that we started out as friends—and despite all the fights we’ve had, we’ve stayed friends. We’ve shared everything equally. No one was the leader of the band. Everyone had input and everyone had something to offer. We’ve shared royalties and writing credits, and no one tries to upstage each other.

[FS] We usually address it in our interviews, just giving our thoughts and opinions on what people are talking about. We’ve always been liberal and open-minded. I’d rather see my tax dollars go to helping people than killing them. [x]

theb52s.com

Meet Your New Neighbors Jim Flanagan & John Meunier

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Siena at Ink Block. New South End Condos Coming Spring, 2018.

The condos at Siena join the sold out Sepia condos at Ink Block in a neighborhood within a neighborhood. Stylish condos come with built-in friends right next door to a built-in lifestyle.

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