05/27/16, Vol. 7 Issue 7

WHAT IS GENVOYA®?

GENVOYA is a 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years and older. It can either be used in people who are starting HIV-1 treatment and have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements. These include having an undetectable viral load (less than 50 copies/mL) for 6 months or more on their current HIV-1 treatment. GENVOYA combines 4 medicines into 1 pill taken once a day with food. GENVOYA is a complete HIV-1 treatment and should not be used with other HIV-1 medicines.

GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. To control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses, you must keep taking GENVOYA. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to reduce the risk of passing HIV-1 to others. 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.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about GENVOYA? GENVOYA may cause serious side effects: • Build-up of an acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include feeling very weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• Serious liver problems. The liver may become large and fatty.

Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turning yellow (jaundice), dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored bowel movements (stools), loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach pain.

• You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking GENVOYA for a long time. In some cases, lactic acidosis and serious liver problems have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions.

• Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. GENVOYA is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV and stop taking GENVOYA, your HBV may suddenly get worse.

Do not stop taking GENVOYA without first talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to monitor your health.

Who should not take GENVOYA? Do not take GENVOYA if you take: • Certain prescription medicines for other conditions.

It is important to ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist about medicines that should not be taken with GENVOYA. Do not start a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider.

• The herbal supplement St. John’s wort.

• Any other medicines to treat HIV-1 infection.

What are the other possible side effects of GENVOYA? Serious side effects of GENVOYA may also include:

• Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking HIV-1 medicines.

• Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking GENVOYA. • Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking GENVOYA. • Bone problems, such as bone pain, softening, or thinning, which may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones.

The most common side effect of GENVOYA is nausea. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or don’t go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking GENVOYA?

• 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.

• All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Other medicines may affect how GENVOYA works. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. Ask your healthcare provider if it is safe to take GENVOYA with all of your other medicines.

• If you take antacids. Take antacids at least 2 hours before or after you take GENVOYA. • If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if GENVOYA can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking GENVOYA. • If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk.

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 GENVOYA including important warnings on the following page.

Ask your healthcare provider if GENVOYA is right for you, and visit GENVOYA.com to learn more.

GENC0026_Darius_10x10.5_GeorgiaVoice_r1.indd 1-2

GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

SHOW YOUR

POWER

Take care of what matters most—you. GENVOYA is a 1-pill, once-a-day complete HIV-1 treatment for people who are either new to treatment or people whose healthcare provider determines they can replace their current HIV-1 medicines with GENVOYA.

5/9/16 10:45 AM

IMPORTANT FACTS This is only a brief summary of important information about GENVOYA and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

(jen-VOY-uh) MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT GENVOYA

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF GENVOYA

Genvoya® may cause serious side effects, including:

GENVOYA can cause serious side effects, including:

• Build-up 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: feeling very weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• 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 (jaundice), dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored bowel movements (stools), loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach pain.

• Worsening of Hepatitis B (HBV) infection. GENVOYA is not approved to treat HBV.

If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking GENVOYA. Do not stop taking GENVOYA 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 GENVOYA for a long time.

ABOUT GENVOYA

• GENVOYA is a prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years of age

and older who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before. GENVOYA can also be used to replace current HIV-1 medicines for some people who have an undetectable viral load (less than 50 copies/mL of virus in their blood), and have been on the same HIV-1 medicines for at least 6 months and have never failed HIV-1 treatment, and whose healthcare provider determines that they meet certain other requirements.

• GENVOYA does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. Ask your healthcare provider about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to others.

Do NOT take GENVOYA if you:

• Take a medicine that contains: alfuzosin (Uroxatral®), carbamazepine (Carbatrol®,

Epitol , Equetro , Tegretol , Tegretol-XR , Teril ), cisapride (Propulsid , Propulsid Quicksolv®), dihydroergotamine (D.H.E. 45®, Migranal®), ergotamine (Cafergot®, Migergot®, Ergostat®, Medihaler Ergotamine®, Wigraine®, Wigrettes®), lovastatin (Advicor®, Altoprev®, Mevacor®), methylergonovine (Ergotrate®, Methergine®), midazolam (when taken by mouth), phenobarbital (Luminal®), phenytoin (Dilantin®, Phenytek®), pimozide (Orap®), rifampin (Rifadin®, Rifamate®, Rifater®, Rimactane®), sildenafil when used for lung problems (Revatio®), simvastatin (Simcor®, Vytorin®, Zocor®), or triazolam (Halcion®). ®

®

®

®

®

• Take the herbal supplement St. John’s wort.

• Take any other HIV-1 medicines at the same time.

®

• Those in the “Most Important Information About GENVOYA” section.

• Changes in body fat.

• Changes in your immune system.

• New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure.

• Bone problems.

The most common side effect of GENVOYA is nausea.

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

• Have or had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis infection.

• Have any other medical condition.

• Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 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 GENVOYA.

HOW TO TAKE GENVOYA

• GENVOYA is a complete one pill, once a day HIV-1 medicine.

• Take GENVOYA with food.

GET MORE INFORMATION

• This is only a brief summary of important information about GENVOYA. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more.

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

GENVOYA, the GENVOYA Logo, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies.

All other marks are the property of their respective owners.

Version date: November 2015 © 2016 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. GENC0026 04/16

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5/9/16 10:45 AM

GEORGIANEWS

New HIV stats cause anxiety for Georgia’s LGBT community Activists criticize CDC, Department of Public Health strategies

The CDC was not able to provide a response to St. Arromand’s comments by press time, but did issue a press release last week about the Emory University findings, with Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention saying, “By pinpointing where HIV strikes the hardest, we have a key piece of the puzzle highlighting the largest disparities within states and the South. We hope these data empower local public health officials, community-based organizations and everyone fighting HIV to bring resources to the gay and bisexual men who need them the most.”

By PATRICK SAUNDERS psaunders@thegavoice.com In June 2014, a team of HIV/AIDS activists from New York teamed up with Atlanta activists to call out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on their strategies and sense of urgency regarding the fight against HIV/AIDS. They also met with the CDC’s HIV prevention personnel to discuss their concerns and present them with The Atlanta Principles, a series of proposed actions they believed the CDC should take.

Nearly two years since then, activists are getting more frustrated as new and more alarming information on HIV/AIDS in Atlanta and across the state continues to surface every few months. A new report authored by researchers at Emory University’s Rollins School for Public Health reveals that men who have sex with men (MSM) account for approximately two-thirds of all new HIV diagnoses each year, and the highest rates of infection are in the South.

Results indicated: n There were six states where more than 15 percent of MSM were living with diagnosed HIV infection in 2012, all of which were in the US South n Of the 25 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with the highest levels of MSM living with an HIV diagnosis, 21 were located in Southern states n Estimates showed in 2012, at least one in four MSM were diagnosed with HIV in the following MSAs: Jackson, MS; Columbia, SC; El Paso, TX; Augusta, GA; Baton Rouge, LA The Atlanta/Sandy Springs/Roswell, Georgia MSA was 13th out of 25 MSAs listed, with a rate of 16.43 diagnosed HIV-positive per 100 MSM. According to a recent CDC study, the risk of diagnosis for Georgia residents (MSM or not, male or female) is one in 51.

And one Emory University AIDS researcher compared downtown Atlanta to third-world African countries when it comes to HIV/AIDS infections. www.thegeorgiavoice.com

A team of HIV/AIDS activists, including Adolph St. Arromand and AID Atlanta’s Craig Washington, presented recommendations to the CDC in June 2014. (File photo)

“We need to get rid of all the administrators and start all over at the Department of Public Health and HIV Prevention.

They are failing the state of Georgia around STDs; they are failing the state of Georgia around HIV. There is no leadership coming out of that place at all whatsoever.”

— HIV/AIDS activist Adolph St. Arromand PrEP, transgender issues among concerns Atlanta HIV/AIDS activist Adolph St. Arromand was part of the group that presented The Atlanta Principles to the CDC in 2014.

The group recommended a more aggressive push to support PrEP, more funding to go to the hardest hit communities and better data collection on transgender individuals, specifically separating that group from MSM to better address their specific needs.

While he notes that the CDC has been pushing PrEP more, he says they have not done enough to train more providers around the utilization of PrEP. “They have done some public campaigns around the end users but not necessarily public campaigns to physicians and medical groups around PrEP,” St. Arromand told Georgia Voice.

The CDC did release a study in February showing that expanded HIV testing/

treatment and the use of daily PrEP could prevent an estimated 185,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. by 2020—a 70 percent reduction in new infections.

St. Arromand says however that “nothing has been done” on the transgender issue, but adds, “From what I understand it goes higher than the CDC, so we’re still in a place where transgender people are still being misgendered. It sounds like it has to come down from HHS [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services].”

Overall he gives the CDC a grade of C- on their HIV/AIDS efforts, saying the Atlanta rates are all the more embarrassing considering that’s where the CDC is located.

“There are too many talented experts that live within a 25-mile radius that can come down here and kind of help to break some of the chains and barriers that we have,” St. Arromand said. “But that’s not happening at all from the CDC.”

Call for DPH overhaul One encouraging point that activists cite is the formation in December 2014 of the Fulton County Task Force on HIV/AIDS, especially considering the number of new infections in Atlanta. But St. Arromand says that the other 19 counties in the Atlanta/ Sandy Springs/Roswell MSA haven’t been as aggressive in their approach to end AIDS. And criticism from Atlanta HIV/AIDS activists isn’t solely directed at the CDC. “The other problem that we have is the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH),” St. Arromand says. “We need to get rid of all the administrators and start all over at the Department of Public Health and HIV Prevention. They are failing the state of Georgia around STDs, they are failing the state of Georgia around HIV. There is no leadership coming out of that place at all whatsoever.”

A DPH spokesperson responded to St. Arromand’s comments by saying, “The Georgia Department of Public Health is working diligently to address HIV/AIDS in Georgia, with particular emphasis on Atlanta and the MSM population. Georgia is the only state in the nation to employ two MSM Coordinators who, with the HIV program, have developed a strategy aimed at reducing the rates of HIV among this target population. This strategy includes, but is not limited to, treatment as prevention—HIV positive individuals who follow an effective treatment regimen are 96 percent less likely to spread HIV to others— continued work to improve the effectiveness of behavioral risk reduction outreach and education, and stigma-free HIV/AIDS and STD counseling via telemedicine.”

May 27, 2016 News 5

GEORGIANEWS

LGBT Institute, Georgia State announce partnership By the Numbers

Plan to gather data to fight anti-LGBT discrimination in the South

35 percent

By PATRICK SAUNDERS psaunders@thegavoice.com The South is home to more LGBT people than any other region in the country, but it’s also home to the most anti-LGBT discrimination. Not one Southern state has passed an employment nondiscrimination law, and the region was ground zero for anti-LGBT bills this year, with Georgia just one of the states to garner national attention along with North Carolina, Tennessee and others.

So the LGBT Institute at the Center for Civil and Human Rights and Georgia State University (GSU) have partnered up to connect academic researchers with LGBT advocates across the region to tell the stories of those marginalized LGBT Southerners, using not a bullhorn or a protest but a less dramatic (though no less effective) tool—hard data.

GSU and the Institute will do so by connecting with LGBT advocates across the 14 states in the region over the next several months, conducting a survey in the fall, holding an academic symposium in November and releasing preliminary findings as early as this December.

Community feedback aids in survey creation Soon after the Institute opened last fall, the organization’s programming board got busy meeting to identify the organization’s core areas of emphasis, which turned out to be education and employment, public health and wellness, and criminal justice and safety. Since then, the Institute has been hosting community events where the public has been joining stakeholder groups in those three areas to further the discussion and pinpoint more precisely the community’s greatest needs.

Armed with that information, Dr. Eric Wright, chair of the sociology department at GSU, and a team of researchers will now examine it even further to develop questions for the survey that will be distributed to LGBT Southerners this fall.

“By fostering this research, we will gain a more complete understanding of the system-

Of the U.S.’s LGBT population lives in the South, the highest of any region

2 percent Of national LGBT funding went to research in the South

9 percent Average of national LGBT funding that went to research nationally *Figures per the Williams Institute and Georgia State University

LGBT Institute executive director Ryan Roemerman, shown here in front of last fall’s LGBT exhibit. (File photo)

“The South is a place that a majority of LGBT people call home and I think that’s because we do like the South.

The South is a great place to live and grow, but I do think that we know there’s challenges.”

— Ryan Roemerman, executive director of the LGBT Institute ic challenges facing LGBT communities and opportunities to create lived equality among LGBT Southerners,” said Ryan Roemerman, executive director of the Institute.

Meanwhile, they will be fanning out across the South to connect with and recruit a variety of LGBT organizations to reach out to LGBT Southerners and constituencies that they have access to in order for them to participate in the survey.

“Our goal would be to then share that data back with them that they could then use for funding or additional research or potentially even using it for policy,” Roemerman said.

LGBT funding issues in the South But that magic word—funding—hasn’t been an easy thing to come by, despite the South having the largest LGBT population and the most pressing needs.

“Equality requires policies that reflect and support LGBT people as equal citizens. The problem, especially in the South, is that the research needed to secure these policies is not often funded,” said Wright in a statement. “In fact, only 2 percent of national LGBT funding went to research in the South compared to 9 percent nationally. That’s a real opportunity for progress considering more than three in 10 LGBT adults live in the South.”

When asked why he thinks the South is underfunded on LGBT issues, Roemerman says it has to do with the community’s stories not being told. The partnership is one way he hopes to bring those stories to light.

“Statistics, research, those are important ways we can reframe and reshape narratives that can dismantle systems that promote discrimination,” he said. “I’m optimistic that the survey results might show that there’s a lot of resilience in the South, that people have been able to do a lot with a little.”

The survey will take place for a couple months, during which the academic symposium will be held. Experts on LGBT issues from around the South and the nation will join there to further the dialogue. And projections are for the release of preliminary findings by the end of the year, so that there will be another tool to tackle the needs and issues of the LGBT South in 2016.

“The South is a place that a majority of LGBT people call home and I think that’s because we do like the South,” Roemerman said. “The South is a great place to live and grow, but I do think that we know there’s challenges. So through these surveys we want to identify what those challenges are, what are some paths that organizations who have been working on these issues for decades or more [have taken], and what kinds of tools can we provide them.”

6 News May 27, 2016 www.thegeorgiavoice.com

HERE’S TO

SHOWING OFF YOUR HOMETOWN PRIDE 6TH ANNUAL L G B T NIGHT AT TURNER FIELD FRIDAY, JUNE 10 BRAVES TICKET PACKAGE STARTS AS LOW AS $25 AND INCLUDES:

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Commemorative Atlanta Braves Hat Pre-Game patio event with live music from the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus $5 Donation to Lost-n-Found Youth

Actress and transgender advocate Laverne Cox, left, fans out over Atlanta activist, writer Raquel Willis. (File photo)

NEWSBRIEFS Nathan Deal leaves Georgia transgender bathroom rules up to school districts Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Attorney General Sam Olens broke their silence on May 17, four days after the White House issued a directive to school districts nationwide affirming transgender students’ rights to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

The pair both released statements criticizing the directive, with Deal saying it “has generated confusion and controversy” and Olens accusing the White House of addressing a “sensitive and complex issue with a sledgehammer,” but they stopped short of announcing any direct action such as filing a federal lawsuit, which about two dozen Georgia Republican senators have called for them to do.

Deal left it up to local school districts to address, saying, “While our 181 school systems must each determine an appropriate response to this federal overreach, I have asked State School Superintendent Richard Woods to provide guidance to those local school systems seeking assistance and clarity on this issue in order to ensure that there will be as much uniformity across our state as possible.”

Olens called the directive “yet another example of executive overreach” but also said it’s up to parents, teachers and local communities to address it, adding, “As the State’s chief law enforcement officer, I will take

steps, when appropriate under the law, to ensure that these decisions are being made at the appropriate level, as demanded by principles of separation of powers and federalism under our Constitution.”

Woman charged in the death of Atlanta drag performer Lateasha Shuntel Federal authorities have arrested and charged Deanna M. Roberts, 46, of Sanford, Florida in the death of beloved drag performer Lateasha Shuntel.

Roberts was taken into custody on May 17 at her Florida home. She faces charges of falsely claiming to be a licensed medical practitioner and illegally transporting liquid silicone from Florida to Atlanta. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Roberts injected the liquid silicone directly into Shuntel’s buttocks, which resulted in her death.

“The public should be wary of individuals who use substances like silicone in ways that are not approved by the FDA, or that are administered by persons who are not properly trained or licensed,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn.

“Liquid silicone is strictly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and may be legally injected directly into the human body only as a treatment for certain eye conditions,” according to Horn, the indictment, and other information presented in court.

Shuntel, 45, was found dead on Nov. 18.

An outpouring of condolences and tributes followed, including The Lateasha Shuntel Memorial Fund, which raised over $16,000 for final expenses.

Roberts made her initial court appearance on May 17 in Orlando, Florida and could also face charges in Fulton County.

Laverne Cox praises Atlanta trans activist Raquel Willis on social media Actress Laverne Cox may be one of the most visible transgender women in the world at the moment, but she recently jumped at the opportunity to acknowledge the work of Atlanta trans activist Raquel Willis. On May 16, Cox shared “The Transgender Dating Dilemma,” a 2015 Buzzfeed article written

by Willis, with millions of her social media followers on Facebook and Twitter.

“I related to so many of Willis’ stories and appreciate her intersectional lens,” wrote Cox. “Thank you Raquel for your candor, nuance and empathy in telling it like it is.

We must never give up hope that love is possible. #TransisBeautiful” Not surprisingly, Willis was floored to receive a “shout out from the queen,” but the reaction from people connected to Atlanta’s own in addition to Cox was equally heartwarming.

“This is Raquel Willis’ world and we just live in it. Yes ma’m!,” wrote Laura Barton on Facebook.

8 News May 27, 2016 www.thegeorgiavoice.com

“

Our sisters are very important to us in our community.

We need to take care of ourselves, get tested, and know our HIV status.

”

— Gigi and Marilyn

WE’RE

DOING IT

Testing for HIV

#DoingIt Testing is Fast, Free, and Confidential cdc.gov/DoingIt

Outspoken “I looked him directly in the eyes, trying desperately to swallow the fear that enveloped me.

As I looked into them, using every bit of my resolve to keep his gaze, I sensed a white-hot hatred that simmered below the surface.”

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10 Outspoken May 27, 2016

Coming of age as a gay man in the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell army GUEST EDITORIAL

By ROB SMITH The first two minutes of my military experience were a blur. No sooner had I gotten off the bus at Fort Benning and retrieved my luggage, as directed, and stood in front of it, I made the mistake of glancing at the drill sergeants out of the side of my eye. They entered the area with their chest-jutting, tough-guy swagger. They seemed somehow larger than life: tall, angry, and terrifying. They meant business, and first up on the agenda was to scare the living hell out of all of us.

I felt every eyeball in the room on me, the lone pepper spot in a sea of bald heads and clean-shaven white faces. I felt weak and exposed. The other recruits were doing their best to focus their attention directly forward and pretend not to notice the scene that was being performed by our new superior for their benefit.

The drill sergeant looked at me, studying me. Although I was trying to maintain my forward gaze, I realized it was bordering on the impossible and decided on a split-second act of defiance. I looked him directly in the eyes, trying desperately to swallow the fear that enveloped me. As I looked into them, using every bit of my resolve to keep his gaze, I sensed a white-hot hatred that simmered below the surface. I engaged him there for what seemed like hours, giving him my brand new “don’t

fuck with me” look. In my mind I thought of every rap video, every “hood” movie I’d ever seen with a young black guy killing someone, selling drugs or robbing someone, men who I was told by my thuggish cousins that I could never be like because I liked books instead of rap music, writing instead of sports.

The drill sergeant’s eyes twinkled and a smile spread widely across his lips. Suddenly, I was afraid, and I felt a wave of fear unleash within me. I knew what was coming, which was possibly the worst thing that could come out right now. He looked directly at me then stepped back to make his pronouncement to the roomful of recruits that I would be spending the next six months with.

“What are you, a fucking faggot?” he said.

It was less of a question and more of a pronouncement, made loud enough so that everyone in the staging area could hear it.

“Yeah, that’s what you are, right?”

I flinched, taking two steps back and nearly falling backwards over the luggage that was stacked neatly behind me. I quickly regained my footing. That would not be a good way to start this process. I had to think quickly, to do something that would end this now.

“No, Drill Sergeant!”

The words came out of my mouth as unexpectedly as the vomit a few hours after I’d had my first shots of whiskey on my seventeenth birthday the past summer. His head whipped

back around toward me. The other recruits and the officers staged in front of us were barely pretending not to pay attention any longer.

This was quickly becoming quite the scene.

“What did you say?”

“No, Drill Sergeant, I’m not a faggot, Drill Sergeant!” I yelled.

“You ever eyeball me like that again and I will end you, you faggot,” he spat.

I waited for a smile, for some sign of the showy badass he had put on for the company for the last five minutes, but there was none there. It was the real him, and he wasn’t a fan of my fake bravado or the little stare down I had given him earlier. I was confused and looked down, but instinctively looked back up and straight ahead. Through my peripheral vision I could’ve sworn I saw the faintest smile on his face, but there was nothing happy about it. It was grim and fearsome, somehow devious. For the first time since I had come to Fort Benning and the Army on a whim, I was afraid. Whatever he and his cohorts had in store for me and the other 124 recruits over the next six months wasn’t going to be fun. Playtime was over.

The preceding was an excerpt from “Closets, Combat and Coming Out,” available on Amazon and wherever LGBT books are sold.

For more information about Rob Smith, visit www.robsmithonline.com. www.thegeorgiavoice.com

IN THE MARGINS Creepoftheweek

By Ashleigh Atwell

Purple Reign: Life lessons through music and stilettos Ashleigh Atwell is a queer lesbian writer and organizer born and raised in Atlanta, GA.

“He wore crop tops and winged eyeliner while other men favored baggy jeans.

He was heterosexual but unabashedly feminine and shut anyone down who had something to say about it. It wasn’t implied, either. As he said in ‘I Would Die 4 U,’ ‘I’m not a woman. I’m not a man. I’m something you will never understand.’”

In my almost 27 years of life, I’ve lived through the aftermath of several celebrity deaths. Some didn’t affect me while others hurt me but I usually got over it within a week. Prince Rogers Nelson has been dead for a month and I’m still hurt. I still have moments where I stop what I’m doing and say aloud, “Bruh, Prince is really dead.”

Y’all, he’s gone.

Only one other celebrity death has truly hurt me and it was my dear Nippy, Whitney Houston. Still, something about losing Prince is different. This surpasses losing a musician or a celebrity. As a little queer black person, it was hard to find black celebrities, regardless of gender identity, that weren’t normative.

Everyone was really hetero and their genders were neatly boxed with a binary bow on top.

Then, there was Prince. The man who strutted around in three-inch heels with his body adorned with rhinestones. He wore crop tops and winged eyeliner while other men favored baggy jeans. He was heterosexual but unabashedly feminine and shut anyone down who had something to say about it. It wasn’t implied, either. As he said in “I Would Die 4 U,” “I’m not a woman. I’m not a man. I’m something you will never understand.”

That was the type of person I needed as a queer child. He was it for the weird awkward black child.

Prince also touched me as an activist or as some of my bougie friends say “artivist.”

Prince’s music did many things, including inspiring social change. Prince used his craft to www.thegeorgiavoice.com

speak on a variety of issues including HIV/ AIDS back in the 1980s when everyone, including a sitting president, refused to talk about it. That bravery and commitment never wavered. Despite postmortem attempts to white wash Prince, he was a staunch supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. He released a song titled “Baltimore” in 2015 and followed it with a Freddie Gray tribute music video. A few months before that, he stood on the Grammy stage and told the audience that “Black lives, in fact, matter.”

Lastly, he embodied shade. When he side-eyed someone, a shadow was cast. His face has been immortalized in GIFs of his stank faces from music videos like “Black Sweat” and “Kiss.” When R&B pretty boy Trey Songz stood on the BET Awards stage in 2010 and warbled his way through “Purple Rain,” Prince clearly wasn’t here for it.

There was no need for him to say a word.

We just knew because of those eyes. An army of Atlanta queens marching through Piedmont Park couldn’t match the intensity of those eyes and the shade they cast.

I thought I was done writing about him. I figured I was done grieving. Not to mention, I saw Madonna’s Billboard Awards tribute and that foolery threw me back into mourning. Gays, from your sister, come retrieve her because your girl is acting a fool. I digress.

In “1999,” the song, Prince told us that life is a party and parties aren’t meant to last. I beg to differ. Prince’s party isn’t over, it has just transcended and I’m still down here dancing.

Transgender students are not a punch line, Steve King

By D’ANNE WITKOWSKI On May 14, right-wing Christian radio show hosts Shane Vander Hart and Brian Myers of “Caffeinated Thoughts” interviewed Congressman Steve King, R-Iowa, about President Obama’s directive that public schools must let transgender students use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity.

Not everyone is happy about the directive and one of those unhappies is King. Never a friend to LGBT people, he has some very inspired thoughts about providing trans students basic decency. “(Obama has) issued a federal decree that they’re going to come after any school that doesn’t allow boys in the girls’ room, girls in the boys’ room, anybody to go into any room that they happen to feel at the moment,” laments King, “and genders can switch on the way to the bathroom.”

In King’s mind, not only is the girls’ room fair game for boys now, but, like Mike Huckabee before him, King has a weird idea about what presumably cisgender boys with

senioritis are going to do now.

“All over America, they’ve got to be lined up right now, the pranksters, going, ‘I’m going to go into the girls’ room,’” King says.

Lest his hosts Steve King think that he’s just kidding, King adds, “It’s the unhumorous humorous reality of how perverse our society has gotten under Barack Obama.”

The cure for what ails the U.S.? Prayer in schools, which, according to King, the Supreme Court had no business eliminating back in 1963.

I suspect, however, that if anyone has kept prayer in school alive, it has been transgender students who hopefully will no longer have to spend valuable class time praying that they can manage to either pee in peace or hold it until they make it home.

May 27, 2016 Outspoken 11

WORK

IT!

Breaking the mold: From corporate employee to CEO “I never really fit the form of Lab Monkey Communications a corporate employee. I never CEO and AGLCC President Jack Kinley is about his business really fit the mold of the ‘follow

By DARIAN AARON daaron@thegavoice.com Most people are content with playing by the rules while working to execute someone else’s vision, and then there’s Jack Kinley— Lab Monkey Communications CEO and newly appointed president of the Atlanta Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (AGLCC).

Kinley followed the blueprint for success.

He earned a bachelors degree in graphic design from Winthrop University, landed an internship that turned into a permanent position with investment and financial management firm Northern Trust, established Atlanta residency and was well on his way into fitting neatly into the corporate box. But there was just one problem—he needed to break free.

Freedom came in 2007 with the launch of Lab Monkey Communications, Kinley’s business solution for global employers in search of creating a more profitable workplace and engaged employee culture.

Georgia Voice caught up with Kinley on the heels of receiving the LGBT Business Advocate of the Year award from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Georgia District Office—to find out more about the hard work he does and how he makes it look so easy.

What were you doing prior to launching Lab Monkey Communications?

Right before I started Lab Monkey, I’d reached a creative director position with a small entrepreneurial company here in Atlanta, and through that experience realized I had everything I needed to know to be able to run my own business.

the template’ approach to work.

I like to solve problems and not just repeat processes. I really like to dig in whenever I see a problem…”

—Jack Kinley, Founder and CEO of Lab Monkey Communications What motivated you to create your own business, and was fear a factor?

I was absolutely afraid. I think some people are meant to own their own businesses.

I never really fit the form of a corporate employee. I never really fit the mold of the “follow the template” approach to work. I like to solve problems and not just repeat processes. I really like to dig in whenever I see a problem and I didn’t always have that opportunity within the structure of corporate settings or even at other small businesses that I worked for.

Tell us about the services Lab Monkey Communications provides.

We work with businesses that have about three thousand employees or more. We help these companies create the employee experience. Anything an employee would need to know at any stage along their career, whether that’s pre-employment for a new employee to an employee that’s been there for years.

Are you involved in day-to day operations as CEO? I’m very involved. My role is focused on developing my team, setting the standards, identifying new challenges and opportuni-

Jack Kinley is the 2016 LGBT Business Advocate of The Year recipient, U.S. Small Business Administration, Georgia District Office. (Courtesy photo)

Details

Lab Monkey Communications 1440 Dutch Valley Place, Suite 115 Atlanta, GA 30324 678.705.5431 www.labmonkeycommunications.com ties; to understand what our clients are going through and create products and opportunities for us to resolve those problems and situations for our clients.

What would you say sets you apart from your competitors?

The big difference for us is that we bring a deeper creative perspective. This company started from me as a graphic designer and storyteller taking the lead versus a benefits consultant who is a little more data driven. The other difference is price point. As a small business we hire senior level executives from the top three consulting firms and we’re able to deliver that level of convenience at a third of the cost. We’re able to do a lot more for a lot less.

As the president of the AGLCC, what

benefits does membership provide to LGBT entrepreneurs?

One of my own personal favorite aspects of AGLCC is our online member business directory. As a gay man, it’s important for me to know where my money is going. I don’t want to support anti-gay causes by accident.

And I think that money is a form of power and energy. Our online directory is sort of a litmus test. If I’m looking for a housekeeper, I’m not gonna have to explain this is mine and my husband’s house and worry about any adverse reaction to that. They’ve been vetted already as LGBT-friendly companies that I can do business with.

What did it mean to you to be recognized by the U.S Small Business Administration?

The recognition from the SBA is a nice validation of the roles that diversity at large, and our LGBT small businesses in particular, play in making Georgia a vibrant place to work and live. Whenever the disenfranchised—and that still includes our LGBT community—has equal access to economic opportunities and long-term stability, then our whole community is stronger.

12 Community May 27, 2016 www.thegeorgiavoice.com

LGBT Military

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The next barrier to fall End of transgender military ban faces delays

By PATRICK SAUNDERS psaunders@thegavoice.com Sept. 20, 2011 marked the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the beginning of lesbian, gay and bisexual U.S. armed forces service members being allowed to serve openly for the first time. While that was a momentous occasion for the LGB community, it left out, as often happens, the T. But hope emerged in February 2015 when, just days after assuming office, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said the following at a town hall meeting with soldiers in Afghanistan: “I’m very open-minded about [it] provided they can do what we need them to do for us. That’s the important criteria. Are they going to be excellent service members? And I don’t think anything but their suitability for service should preclude them.” The White House issued their support for Carter’s statement, and he created a working group to study how to integrate transgender people into the services.

That August, USA Today unearthed a memo circulated among top military personnel that said the ban would end on May 27, 2016. But earlier this month, as transgender service members (and veterans who had been kicked out) counted down to the end of the ban, the Washington Post reported that disagreements remained in the Defense Department about how to move forward with the ban and that it would not end as scheduled.

A dress and a reprimand It was the late 1990s and Kay Furlong was flying high. As a captain in the Air Force at Scott Air Force Base just outside of St. Louis, she was just two layers below a threestar general and was in charge of nearly 100 lieutenant colonels, majors and others. www.thegeorgiavoice.com

“I just knew I was going to be discriminated against for the rest of my career. I didn’t stand a chance of ever getting promoted or stand a chance of retiring, so I said okay, I’ll cut my losses, take my honorable discharge and go find a civilian job somewhere close to home.”

—Kay Furlong, who served in the Air Force from 1992-1999 But there was one problem: Kay wasn’t known as Kay yet. She still identified as a man, although she says she knew she was “different.” The Air Force found out her secret thanks to a nosy neighbor who saw her out in a dress and reported her. She got called into her commander’s office and got a letter of reprimand on file for her actions.

“My commander had said, ‘Okay well if you agree to see the psychiatrist and agree to never dress like this again and agree that you’ll be straight and adhere to all the military standards, if you’re clean for two years I’ll pull this reprimand out of your file,’” Furlong told Georgia Voice. “So I went ahead and did all that stuff. I was being myself at home but I just tried to be careful if I went out with any friends or anything like that.”

She kept her head down and tried to stay focused on her duties, but alarm bells went off when she was up for advancement and she failed to get the endorsement of the three-star general.

“I was doing a lot of high level, heavy duty stuff and just was not getting any kind of credit because I had already tarnished myself,” she said. “So I could see where that was going.”

She was seven years into her military career and beginning to take the long view.

Did she want to put in another 10 years of her life and go for early retirement? That

Atlanta transgender activist Monica Helms (far right) founded the Transgender American Veterans Association in 2003. (Courtesy photo)

meant another decade of traveling all over the globe, moving every two or three years, not having anything saved up and just crossing her fingers she wouldn’t get kicked out.

“You give up your life for your country, you don’t get a family, you don’t settle down. So I had all that weighing on my mind,” Furlong said. “I just knew I was going to be discriminated against for the rest of my career. I didn’t stand a chance of ever getting promoted or stand a chance of retiring, so I said okay, I’ll cut my losses, take my honorable discharge and go find a civilian job somewhere close to home.”

So she called it quits and moved home to Augusta, Georgia to take care of her father after her mother passed away. And another valuable member of the U.S. military was lost to the ban on transgender troops. She later came out, got to starting that family and now lives with her wife and kids in Newnan.

End to the ban forthcoming?

Furlong’s story is one all too common to Atlanta transgender activist Monica Helms, who in 2003 founded the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA).

Helms, who served on two submarines for the U.S. Navy from 1970 to 1978, also created the transgender flag. She left TAVA in 2013 but still advocates for transgender service members and veterans like her.

“Gender non-conforming people have been serving our country since the Revolutionary War, many with distinction,” Helms told Georgia Voice. “[If ] at least 15 other ally countries have lifted the ban with no issues, then so can we, just like it was when

By the Numbers 15,500

Transgender individuals who are currently on active duty or in the Guard or Reserve forces

150,000

Transgender individuals who have served, or currently serve, in the U.S. armed forces

1.6

Times more likely that transgender women will serve than all adult men

3

Times more likely that transgender men will serve than all adult women *Figures per a 2014 Williams Institute report on transgender military service in the U.S.

we lifted the ban on LGB people. A trans woman even served on the same rescue team as Prince William and was at his wedding.

There are between 12,000 and 15,000 trans people serving today. It’s time to allow them to come out of the closet.”

Defense Secretary Carter reportedly still remains committed to ending the ban and his office has said it would likely take “months, but not large numbers of months” to finalize details. Meanwhile, an eager segment of the military awaits.

May 27, 2016 LGBT Military 15

LGBT Military

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Hurdles remain for LGBT soldiers Post-Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military tolerance increases despite a culture of homophobia

By DIONNE N. WALKER There’s no shortage of things to consider when embarking on a military career. But for Army Reserves Sgt. Robin Biro, just one was top-of-mind when he joined in 2009: How he would manage to serve his country without his identity as a gay man becoming a hurdle.

He decided to butch it up when necessary and kept his personal life, well, personal. In other words: If they ask, try not to tell.

“I just said that I’ve been too busy to date,” said Biro, who left active duty a little over two years ago. “That usually shut them down.”

Half a decade later, Biro proudly shares his history as an out Army ranger. The stigma, for the most part, has vanished.

“Enough time has passed,” he said. “It’s just normalized.”

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the repeal of the so-called Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, or DADT, which restricted out lesbian, gay and bisexual men and women from serving in the U.S. military. As we honor our fallen service members gay and straight this May, signs abound of a vastly improved environment for gays in the military.

Yet real hurdles remain, especially for transgender enlistees, who struggle with cultural acceptance as well as practical issues like wearing gender-specific uniforms.

Meanwhile, The Georgia Voice could find precious few enlisted service men and women willing to go on the record with their orientation - evidence that while gone, the military’s longstanding stigma against homosexuality is far from forgotten.

Signed into law that December, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 brought an end to the policy that had kept countless LGB military personnel closeted for nearly two decades and led to some 14,000 discharges.

Five years on, there are signs of a stunning www.thegeorgiavoice.com

“They called me ‘Ranger Girl,’” said Biro, who said things got worse in the months initially following the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, before higher-ups made it clear that anti-gay bullying would be punished. about-face across various military branches.

The Associated Press recently reported on Eugene “E.J.” Coleman earning a vice presidential nod for being the first out class president at the United States Military Academy; last fall, gay singer/songwriter Steve Grand escorted a gay marine to the annual Marine Corps ball. And in May, Eric K. Fanning became the first openly gay Secretary of the Army.

This new acceptance would have been hard for Biro to imagine when he signed on.

Fresh off a run as a regional field director with the Obama campaign, Biro was looking for a way to continue serving the President when he signed an Army Ranger contract in 2009. Friends were concerned: Biro was over 30 years old, clearly gay and entering a regiment known for machismo and a frat-like atmosphere. Biro himself had heard rumors that supported their concerns.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. (iStock photo)

“Basically, the Army as a whole didn’t really have a problem with openly gay troops, but the only part of the Army that did was Ranger Regiment,” he said, recalling Pentagon surveys he read before enlisting. “I knew going in that if I ever managed to achieve that level of elite forces, that it would be a different ball game.”

The South Carolina native turned Atlanta resident never experienced any of the physical hazing feared by many LGBT soldiers, and the handful of comrades he confided in seemed unconcerned with his orientation. But Biro said he heard his fair share of gay slurs, and even earned a not-sofriendly name from a few particularly persistent bullies.

“They called me ‘Ranger Girl,’” said Biro, who said things got worse in the months initially following the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, before higher-ups made it clear that anti-gay bullying would be punished.

“Once (they) put that out, it changed everything overnight.”

Biro’s story is typical across the military, as attitudes have slowly changed from the top down, according to Matt Thorn, Exec-

utive Director of OutServe-SLDN—a nonprofit watchdog group serving LGBT military personnel.

“Our membership has grown steadily since repeal, as individuals can be authentic in their service,” said Thorn, adding that the group continues to work on key issues like discharge upgrades for LGB service members kicked out under DADT. He pointed to the plight of transgender soldiers as another area for growth in the military. In July, Sgt. Shane Ortega, a transgender man, made international headlines after Army officials insisted he wear a female dress uniform, according to a story published by The Washington Post.

Biro pointed to the incident as proof that there is still plenty of room for improvement in the military’s attitude toward LGBT soldiers. Regardless, he said he feels the repeal has brought the military closer.

And while there’s not a special person in his life right now, Biro knows when there is, he won’t have to hide him from his fellow reservists.

“They can love it or leave it!” he said, laughing.

May 27, 2016 LGBT Military 17

18 Ads May 27, 2016 www.thegeorgiavoice.com

LGBT Military

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Proud to serve, love openly There is power in serving openly and authentically as an LGBT soldier, but most of all, there is strength in the support provided by an LGBT spouse that cannot be denied.

This strength is bolstered by an inclusive military and society that now recognizes the couples on this page for what they truly

are—family. The American Military Partner’s Association (AMPA) takes pride in advocating on behalf of modern military families. Get to know a few of AMPA’s members as they share their lives and contributions to our nation through AMPA’s “Faces of Our Families” campaign.

Donna and Jan of Mississippi

Josh Coachman-Jensen and Wilthalri’o Coachman-Jensen married May 25, 2014.

LTC Grand Pre and former Marine Captain and congressional candidate for the 52nd district Jacquie Atkinson were married recently in San Diego, CA.

Trevis and Noé Zetina-Richards were married on Sept. 29, 2015 at San Francisco City Hall. They are stationed at NOSC Alameda in California. www.thegeorgiavoice.com

“On June 21, 2014, we said ‘I do’ and we became the Andersons. I have been on cloud nine ever since that day. Every morning I see Angela put this uniform on with pride and integrity. She is my true definition of what it means to be an American soldier. She took an oath and she lives by it. I am proud to be a U.S. Army spouse…what can I say, I love my soldier!”— Auziá Anderson talking about her wife, Angie Anderson

“I am so incredibly proud of my wife for pushing through every obstacle to fulfill her life long dream of being a United States Sailor.” — Proud AMPA military spouse, Jessica Dembowski, Mayport, FL.

U.S. Army Major Randy Schilling and his spouse Gene attending the annual CGSC Sustainment Ball at Fort Leavenworth.

May 27, 2016 LGBT Military 19

LGBT Military

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Supporting our military LGBT families AMPA becomes saving grace for ATL couple

By DARIAN AARON daaron@thegavoice.com RayShawn Chandler doesn’t recall exactly how she came across the American Military Partner Association’s (AMPA) website, but there is one thing she’s certain of—as the wife to deployed Army reservist Avery Chandler—the discovery was her saving grace.

Under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), LGBT soldiers were expected to live a life of secrecy or risk their careers and livelihood.

And with virtually no organized support network, the spouses of these soldiers were also pushed to the periphery and rendered invisible. It’s a reality that RayShawn would have faced when Avery was deployed to Kuwait in 2014, leaving the mother-to-be alone to deal with the fear that accompanies military service overseas.

Enter AMPA, the nation’s largest resource and support network for the partners, spouses, families, and allies of America’s LGBT service members and veterans. And for RayShawn, a resource that not only provided the crucial support she needed during Avery’s deployment and connected her to other military spouses, but kept her from losing it altogether during their separation.

“I tried to keep busy as much as possible while she was gone. I took to different social media outlets,” says RayShawn. “For example, AMPA— cause baby, let me tell you, it was not easy, especially during the first four months.”

Avery, an Atlanta police officer and RayShawn, a Delta flight attendant, were able to find a silver lining in one of the major perks of RayShawn’s job when she was able to fly to Amsterdam and Paris to meet Avery while on leave during the fourth and eighth month marks of her deployment. It’s a perk the couple doesn’t take for granted and one that isn’t available to most military spouses, which makes deployment all the more challenging and AMPA even more necessary. www.thegeorgiavoice.com

“I tried to keep busy as much as possible while she was gone.

I took to different social media outlets. For example, AMPA— cause baby, let me tell you, it was not easy, especially during the first four months.”

—RayShawn Chandler Family first AMPA President Ashley Broadway-Mack tells Georgia Voice that a top priority for the organization is to “continue to support and connect LGBT military members wherever they are stationed, whether it be with other families, allies, or resources.”

AMPA’s goodwill didn’t begin and end with RayShawn as she awaited her wife’s return; it extended to Avery as well.

“While I was in Kuwait, a family from AMPA actually sent me a care package,” she says. “When you’re deployed overseas, care packages are the world. You look forward to the mail that you’re gonna get from your family members and you also look forward to care packages. It really makes you feel special to have a family across the world thinking about you and sending you something to make your time away from [your own] family easier and a little bit more manageable.”

The couple’s growing family was at the

Military couple Avery (back) and RayShawn Chandler (front) with their newborn son, Ace. (Photo via Facebook)

forefront of both their minds as RayShawn’s pregnancy via in vitro fertilization with their son Ace, now almost six months old, was confirmed during their Paris meet-up and documented in a video on their popular YouTube channel, “Our Normal Life Atlanta.”

Baby Ace, although not yet conceived, was a motivating factor in their decision to fight for all of the legal benefits provided to heterosexual families as plaintiffs in the 2014 Georgia class-action gay marriage lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal.

According to Avery, “there is never a dull moment” in their home since Ace’s arrival.

“He is such a blessing,” says RayShawn.

“I know they say babies keep you up all night and cry.”

“It’s true,” echoed Avery.

“But I will take his whining and crying over anything. He has made our bond even closer, especially when Avery returned back from her deployment. For her to come home and experience the second part of our pregnancy together and to experience the birth of our child was wonderful.”

Moving beyond DADT Avery’s oath to protect and serve, which

she takes very seriously, extends to both the military and the APD. But the silence imposed upon her under DADT and the homophobic epithets heard within earshot is something she’s not likely to forget despite the ban’s repeal.

“Even after (DADT) was repealed, I still didn’t feel comfortable, “ says Avery. “Going through my unit and hearing some of the things that people were saying. Yes, it was repealed but you still have to go to work with these people and you know what their true feelings are.”

The repeal of DADT was an important first step, but changing the culture to fully embrace LGBT service members within the armed forces is still a work in progress. Yet, Avery, Broadway-Mack and AMPA remain hopeful.

“Despite DADT being repealed, DOMA no longer an obstacle, and marriage equality now in every state, it is crucial that AMPA remain a voice and advocate for LGBT military families,” says Broadway-Mack.

“All across the country our members are being welcomed with open hearts and open minds, and most importantly are becoming an integral part of the military community.”

May 27, 2016 LGBT Military 25

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CYNDI LAUPER

TAKES A MUSICAL ‘DETOUR’ Cyndi Lauper on going country and her dream to be in ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?’ with Madonna

By CHRIS AZZOPARDI It’s not just about having fun anymore. For Cyndi Lauper, music runs deeper than her ’80s-era eccentricities may have seemed to suggest. Lauper changes musical guises like she changes dye jobs.

The 62-year-old singer takes another sharp turn on Detour, her latest reincarnation, this time as a full-on Southern belle. The spunky pop priestess trades in her pink for plaid and saddles up with a slew of Nashville mainstays to sing signature mid-20th-century country ditties.

Lauper recently dished on longing to be the “unknown singer,” shoe struggles and forever wanting to take on Joan Crawford and Bette Davis’ infamous revenge relic “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?.” How exactly? By starring in a version of it alongside Madonna, of course.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 28

www.thegeorgiavoice.com

May 27, 2016 A&E 27

VOICES OF NOTE PRESENTS

CYNDI LAUPER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27

I love the irony of you, mega LGBT activist, taking on a genre that’s not historically known to embrace the LGBT community.

There are a lot of LGBT people who love early country music! They love Patsy Cline, they love Loretta Lynn. I loved Loretta Lynn when I was little and when I heard her sing “The Pill” (a cheeky take on birth control) it was like, “Holy cow!”

You’ve called your new label, Sire Records, your “dream label.” And actually, Madonna’s self-titled debut was released on the same label in 1983. Do you think you and Madonna might have done a duet if you’d been on the same label back in the day? Was there ever talk of that happening?

Oh, not by business people. You know, I always felt for me, I would’ve loved to do “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” with her... ’cause I think that’s very funny!

(Laughs hysterically)

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GCA also receives support from its partner agency—the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding for this program is also provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners.

28 A&E May 27, 2016

Which part would you play?

Come on! Who do you think I’d play?

I’d play Baby Jane – I’d be torturing her. Because she’s always viewed as the bad girl, you know! They’d make her the good girl and I’d be the bad one. Or (we could do Joan Crawford’s 1954 western-drama) “Johnny Guitar”– she’d be the righteous one (laughs).

Why is it important to you to still perform in North Carolina despite the state’s new discriminatory legislation known as the “bathroom bill”?

North Carolina is a very important place to go because once people are disenfranchised the way they have been, it’s very important to bring light to a place where people have none and also educate people on what the real concerns are and get people involved in their own destiny.

It’s hard for me to even string these words together, but because you were on “Celebrity Apprentice:” What if Donald Trump becomes president?

Ugh. Everybody keeps asking me the same question. I don’t know. I really don’t know. I wouldn’t feel that good about it. I don’t think people should campaign to stop

Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Detour’ show will play Atlanta Symphony Hall on June 5. (Publicity photos)

Details Cyndi Lauper

“Detour” Sunday, June 5 Atlanta Symphony Hall 1280 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, GA 30309 Tickets: $35-$100 www.atlantasymphony.org Trump. I think people should vote, for one, and vote for the person they feel is most responsible and can really understand the way the government works right now and make it move forward instead of stopping it every frickin’ two minutes and costing people who pay taxes a lot of money. It’s a little disconcerting – the whole frickin’ thing – and it’s gone on for too long.

It’s been seven years since “Bring Ya to the Brink,” your last full album of original non-musical material. Do you write?

Are there plans to release original material under your own name?

Well, I’m probably gonna write another Broadway show.

Oh, you are?

Yes. I think if I wrote (for a solo project) I’d probably write under a pseudonym and sing under a pseudonym because it’d just be a lot easier to have it be received better.

Why can’t you put your name on it?

I don’t know. Because I don’t want to be judged. I’d rather do new music with a paper bag over my head and be the unknown singer. (Laughs) But you’ve been in the spotlight for almost your entire life. Aren’t you used to critics?

No, I know, but there are things that I can do as Cyndi Lauper and things that I can’t. Just ’cause I can’t doesn’t mean I won’t.

I just won’t do it in a conventional way.

You can see Lauper live in concert when she plays Atlanta Symphony Hall on June 5. www.thegeorgiavoice.com

ACTING OUT

By JIM FARMER

Black, LGBT experiences centered in ‘The Dingalogues’ They may be distinct in their personalities, but the six characters in the new play “The Dingalogues” share the common characteristic of being both black and gay – and dealing with the struggles that presents. The stories of social activist Malik, self-tormenting pastor David, combat veteran Jonathan, butch queen Free, drag queen Melody Mirage and transgender man Parker come alive in the piece. We recently caught up with cast members and writers John Collins and Erik Dillard (who also directs) to tell us more about the new show, which Dillard laughingly calls “‘The Vagina Monologues’ after black gay men,” and the journey to bring it to stage.

Hi guys! Tell us a little about how “The Dingalogues” came about.

Erik: There was a poetry event in January and I saw John and Larry Walker and their pieces seemed kind of conversational. John and I talked after about doing something that was more LGBT-friendly and decided what lanes we wanted to go into, what walls we could break down in terms of taboo. We started then. The other writers are Larry, Rigardo Rush and Derrick Tinneal and we all play the characters we write about.

Did you bring a lot of yourselves to this?

John: It is fiction, but in each story we have brought a big chunk of ourselves.

Tell us about your individual characters.

John: Jonathan is hyper masculine. A typical military, I’m fighting for my country, all-American dude. He understands Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is prevalent but is comfortable with his sexuality. This is his first time abroad, first time on his own.

He is naïve about a lot of things, discovering who he is and this great big world. He brings a guy back to his room and winds up getting raped.

Erik: I am Melody. I have always loved drag queens but never thought I would do it.

But there was a television show pilot where I was asked if I would play a drag queen. I went ahead and did it. A character really did develop and I have been doing that for a year. www.thegeorgiavoice.com

The cast of the original stage production, ‘The Dingalogues,’ running June 3-5 at 7 Stages. (Publicity Photo)

Details ‘The Dingalogues’

June 3 - 5 7 Stages 1105 Euclid Ave. Atlanta, GA 30307 www.7stages.org Why is this show important?

John: These stories needs to be told.

It speaks to the harsh reality of why being LGBT isn’t a choice. People don’t look at what it means to be black and gay, what we go through as we come to terms with our sexual-

ity. The character of Melody is celebrated under the lights, but what is she going through?

What is the character like when she becomes Melvin and is at home alone? This takes you behind the scenes, having parents who can say, “You don’t look or act gay, why can’t you flip the switch,” and why we can be pushed out of our homes when we are young.

sion. Writing Jonathan, a lot of anger came out. I had to figure out these emotions. I had to separate myself from this and be able to speak about this.

Erik: It was hard to cast someone as the transgender character who felt comfortable and confident enough to tell that story well.

What was the biggest challenge?

John: Revisiting the experience in the military. I had to lock that away and suck it up. I couldn’t tell anybody. I couldn’t talk to my superiors. It caused me a lot of depres-

Are there plans to take this to another city?

John: Right now we are concentrating on Atlanta, but we would love to create a buzz and tour.

May 27, 2016 Columnists 29

EATING MY WORDS

By CLIFF BOSTOCK

Obsessed: ATL spots you’ll want to visit twice In case nobody has ever told you – or has forgotten to tell you – the brain begins to melt into something like a taxidermied blob as it ages. For example, I recently dined for the first time at the Peruvian Las Brasas in Decatur (614 Church St). For the most part, I liked the food and wondered why I’d never visited before.

Two days later, I remembered that I had indeed visited several times earlier – years ago, but when the restaurant was in a different location. The dish that jarred my memory was potatoes huancaina. It’s sliced, chilled Yukon potatoes covered with a creamy, subtly spiced cheese sauce, topped with a quail egg and some black olives.

Its textures and flavors make it my favorite dish here, but the restaurant is best known for its rotisserie chicken, marinated in mysterious Peruvian spices and served with an equally mysterious green sauce. I have to admit, I wasn’t so impressed. But the potato dish rules.

I thought this week I might mention a few other inexpensive, mainly mainstream edibles that do remain ongoing memorable obsessions.

Triple Ginger Snaps: These are an antidote to the under-flavored typical ginger snaps in most stores and bakeries. They are made with ginger puree, pieces of crystallized ginger, ginger powder, and, apparently, crack cocaine. They are strongly spicy and sweet and they are a signature item at Trader Joe’s. Do not put an entire container in front of your TV. (Various locations) Medio Dia: This extraordinary Cuban sandwich on a pineapple sub roll is the creation of Hector Santiago at El Super Pan. It is stuffed with adobo-roasted ham, chayote pickles, Swiss cheese, habanero mustard, and clove salt. The thing that elevates it to heavenly is the occasional, explosively flavorful crunch of the ham’s crispy skin (chicharrones). Super Pan makes the screwed-up parking at Ponce City Market worth the effort. (Ponce City Market) Toffee Coffee Arctic Swirl: Go ahead, stick to your pricey restaurant riffs on soft-serve ice cream swirled with a variety of ingredients. Or swallow your gay pride and go to Zesto and

Tofu skin rolls wrapped around bean sprouts, carrots, and snow peas served at Green Sprout Vegetarian Cuisine.

(Photo by Cliff Bostock)

pay half the price for my longtime fave pig-out dessert in the city. You can get an Arctic Swirl made with other ingredients but my 20-yearold fave is this one with bits of something like Heath Bars in vanilla ice cream swirled with coffee syrup. (Various locations) Spicy Fried Chicken: Yeah, I love Popeye’s, Hop’s, and Watershed, but the chicken at Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken fully deserves its name. The problem is the location downtown in the rear of Peachtree Center, but it’s worth the effort. You get chicken, strictly fried upon order, with a thin crust, redder than a drag queen’s lipstick, miraculously spicy, served on a slice of plain old white bread. This chicken was “invented” in the 1950s in Memphis and will never, ever go out of style. (231 Peachtree St.) Tofu Skin Roll with Bean Sprouts: Every time I order this dish at Green Sprout Vegetarian Cuisine, across from Ansley Mall, I can’t imagine eating the entire thing, but always do. It’s a huge mound of rolls made of crispy-fried tofu skin wrapped around bean sprouts, carrots, and snow peas, served with a deliciously flavored, soy-based sauce. As God is my meat-eating witness, you will not miss the consumption of flesh while munching on this. Other dishes? Mainly not as good. (1529 Piedmont Ave.) Cliff Bostock is a longtime dining critic and psychotherapist turned life coach. www.cliffbostock.com.

30 Columnists May 27, 2016 www.thegeorgiavoice.com

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Our Guide to the Best LGBT Events in Atlanta for May 27-June 9

T BETS S E

A T N LA T A T B G L EVENT

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SATURDAY, MAY 28

Actor’s Express has opened the gay-themed romantic comedy “Significant Other,” written by “Bad Jews” writer Joshua Harmon, at 8 p.m. tonight, running through June 19, www.actors-express.com (Publicity photo)

THURSDAY, MAY 26 – SUNDAY, MAY 29

The Big Peach softball tournament kicks off tonight, bringing in players from all over the country, various fields, bigpeachtournament.sportngin.com

FRIDAY, MAY 27

The acclaimed, gay-themed “Viva” continues at the Midtown Art Cinema, www.landmarktheatres.com

EVENT SPOTLIGHT SATURDAY, MAY 28

Out musician Lucas Mire plays at Eddie’s Attic at 9:30 p.m., in support of his fourth album “Heyday,” www.eddiesattic.com (Photo via Facebook)

32 Best Bets May 27, 2016

DJ Rapko of Q100 kicks off the holiday weekend at Flirt After Work, beginning at 5:30 p.m., My Sister’s Room, www.mysistersroom.com DJ Stan Jackson whips up the crowd at Pump Friday, 10 p.m., Heretic, www.hereticatlanta.com Atlanta Eagle presents Unchained, a free fetish and BDSM event, with live performances, demo stations and a dungeon, 10 p.m. - 3 a.m., www.atlantaeagle.com

Party with the men of Absolut as Blake’s presents the Deadly Vixens event at 11 p.m. www.blakesontheparkatlanta.com

SATURDAY, MAY 28

The Carry Nation, a NYC based production team comprised of Nita Aviance and DJ Will Automagic, make their Atlanta debut tonight at The Atlanta Eagle. 10 p.m., with Chelsea Starr as the warm-up act, www.atlantaeagle.com

SUNDAY, MAY 29

Sleep is for sissies! DJ Karlitos rocks the night owl crowd, 3 a.m., Xion Atlanta, www.facebook.com/ events/890509734380692/ WNBA season is back! The Atlanta Dream, hoping to rebound from a disappointing 2015 season, host the Indiana Fever at 3 p.m., Philips Arena, www.philipsarena.com Join TEN Atlanta for a Patio Cookout

this afternoon as part of Sunday Funday, www.tenatlanta.com Miami DJ Kidd Madonny spins at a special Memorial Day Weekend Heretic event, 9 p.m., www.hereticatlanta.com

MONDAY, MAY 30

No plans today? Come to Cockpit’s Memorial Day Cookout, 465 Boulevard St., Atlanta, GA 30312 Enjoy blackjack with Miss Lauren at Woofs Atlanta, 7 p.m., www.woofsatlanta.com DJ Kaye G spins at Bulldogs, with free pool, 893 Peachtree St., Atlanta, GA, 30308

TUESDAY, MAY 31

Join author Gregg Shapiro and transgender musician Bucky Motter at Charis Books for an evening of storytelling and song. Gregg is the author of “How to

www.thegeorgiavoice.com

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LGBT EVENT

Submit your LGBT event for inclusion in our online and print calendars by emailing event info to editor@thegavoice.com Whistle,” a wry, funny story collection featuring gay men who may feel as familiar as old friends, but who, like the best old friends, are full of surprises. Motter is a veteran of the Atlanta music scene and has opened for such artists as BB King, Indigo Girls, and the Manhattan Transfer. 7:30 – 9 p.m., www.charisbooksandmore.com J’s Lounge is the home for Rainbow Tuesdays, with Dymond Onasis and Nicole Paige Brooks leading the fun and DJ Destin providing house music, 1995 Windy Hill Road #1, Smyrna, GA 30080

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1

Enjoy a burger, and Poker Night, from 8 – 11 p.m.at Joe’s on Juniper, www.joesonjuniper.com A-4! Bubba Dee and Monica Van Pelt unite for Bitchy Bingo and drag all night, Lips Atlanta, www.atldragshow.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 2

SAGE Atlanta hosts a social hour at 10 a.m., followed by a program/meeting at 11 a.m., Phillip Rush Center Annex, www.rushcenteratl.org NAESM launches NSPIRE, a new mentorship program to aid newly diagnosed, HIV-positive young men who have sex with men, with a free lunch and learn from 12:30-2:30 p.m., Paschal’s Restaurant, 180 Northside Drive SW, Atlanta, GA 30313, RSVP is required, www.eventbrite.com/e/nspire-lunch-learnthe-untold-narrative-tickets The Personal is Political Feminist Vent is tonight at Charis Books. Building on the activist tradition of consciousness raising groups, each month Charis invites community members to join this lightly facilitated group to talk about issues in their personal lives or in society as a whole that they are trying to process or deconstruct. The group will then use intersectional feminist strategies as tools to help talk through those issues. 7:30 – 9 p.m. www.charisbooksandmore.com The Pretty Girl Hideout Thursdays is tonight, hosted by Mook Dahost, Soul

www.thegeorgiavoice.com

FRIDAY, JUNE 3

HOGTIED returns to Heretic, this year joined by Kim Chi, the hungriest avant-garde queen to ever grace the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” mainstage. Dust off those dog masks and come in your best fetish/leather/bondage gear for the chance to win a cash prize! Scheduled performers include: Abhor Ra, Arrianna Paris, Brigitte Bidet, Chelsea Daggers, Dax Exclamation Point, Dynisty St. James, Ellisorous Rex, Evah Destruction, and Lavonia Elberton. 10 p.m. – 3 a.m., Heretic, www.hereticatlanta.com (Screenshot image) Bar at Pal’s Lounge, 254 Auburn Ave., Atlanta, GA 30303, www.traxxgirls.com

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 – SATURDAY, JUNE 4

The Atlanta Women’s Chorus closes its season this weekend with “Unfolding Peace.” The selections, ranging from favorite popular tunes to a creative new commissioned work, will honor the struggle through adversity as the chorus imagines peace for all.

Druid Hills Presbyterian Church, Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., 1026 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE, Decatur, GA 30306, www.voicesofnote.org/awc

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 – SUNDAY, JUNE 5

The dings we log along life’s journey can rob a person of their humanity, vitality, and freedom(s) when they are caught being human in the spectrum of homosexuality.

“The Dingalogues” is a gay themed, original theatrical stage production, running tonight through Sunday, 7 Stages, www.7stages.org

FRIDAY, JUNE 3

Jeremy presents the Skin event tonight at Tripps, 4:30 p.m. – 2:30 a.m., 1931 Piedmont Circle NE Atlanta, 30309

Pick up your flowers for the season at Garden*Hood and feast on snacks and wine provided by Stone Soup Kitchen.

Donations benefit Atlanta Pride Committee. 5 – 8 p.m., 353 Boulevard SE, Atlanta, GA 30312

SATURDAY, JUNE 4

The Sylvia Rivera Day of Service honors Rivera, an American bisexual transgender activist and trans woman.

She was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance and helped found Street Transgender Action Revolutionaries, a group dedicated to helping homeless young street drag queens and trans women. 1 – 5 p.m., Lost-N-Found Thrift Store, 2585 Chantilly Drive, Atlanta, GA 30324. To participate, sign up at swg.wufoo.com/ forms/wn6mc4h0x0uhl0/ Held at Paris on Ponce on Atlanta’s Beltline, “Broadway on Ponce” benefits Actor’s Express and features music, magic and desserts. Broadway’s Claybourne Elder (“Bonnie & Clyde,” “Road Show”) headlines. 716 Ponce de Leon Pl NE, Atlanta, GA 30306 If it’s 9 p.m. at BJ Roosters, hot boys will

CONTINUES ON PAGE 34

EVENT SPOTLIGHT SATURDAY, JUNE 4

The City Winery at Ponce City Market hosts 10,000 Maniacs for a 7 and a 10 p.m. set of shows, www.citywinery.com/atlanta/tickets. html#/page/1 (Publicity photo)

May 27, 2016 Best Bets 33

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 33 be on the bar, bartenders will be pouring strong drinks, and DJ Tommy will be spinning fun tunes, 2043 Cheshire Bridge Rd., Atlanta, GA 30324

SUNDAY, JUNE 5

Enjoy draft specials all day beginning at noon at The Hideaway Atlanta, www.atlantahideaway.com/

MONDAY, JUNE 6

Although it may not seem like it, parents are a big influence on teens’ decisions, especially about sex. The Real Life.

Real Talk – Planned Parenthood Southeast’s Teen Action Group will talk to parents about what their children need. 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., Rush Center Annex, www.rushcenteratl.org The PFLAG support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people and their parents and family meets from 7:30 – 9 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, www.uuca.org It’s Blue Monday Karaoke night with Angelica D’Paige at 10:30 p.m., Burkhart’s, www.burkharts.com

TUESDAY, JUNE 7

Make your lunch break a networking opportunity and connect with business professionals, small business owners, job seekers and community supporters to expand your circle of influence and grow your business at Connecting Atlanta, a networking lunch by the Metro Atlanta Association of Professionals (MAAP). Join MAAP at Egg Harbor Café the first Tuesday of every month from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. There is no set price, just pay on your way out for your meal. Please preregister by emailing Todd Cosper at tcosper@maapatl.org.

Art It Out Therapy Center offers an Expressive Art Therapy Group for LGBTQ Teens on Tuesdays. Through art, the group will explore self-identity, coping with stress, intimate and parental relationships, and coming out. 7 p.m., 255 Village Parkway (in Paper Mill Village), Suite 580, Marietta, GA 30067

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8

Tonight is a free preview of all 24 productions that make up this year’s 5th annual Atlanta Fringe Festival, taking place June 9-12 in Little Five Points, 8 p.m., 7 Stages, www.7stages.org As part of the Laughing Skull Comedy

34 Best Bets May 27, 2016

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8

Atlanta Pride and Out On Film present a screening of “Upstairs Inferno.” On June 24, 1973, a gay bar in New Orleans called the Up Stairs Lounge was deliberately set on fire, resulting in the largest gay mass murder in U.S. history. This documentary, directed by Robert Camina and narrated by Christopher Rice, examines the circumstances leading up to it and talks to some of the survivors. 7 p.m.

The event is free but donations are accepted. Rush Center Annex, 1530 Dekalb Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307. (Publicity photo) Festival, twelve queer comedians will perform tonight at My Sister’s Room, with Julie Osborne hosting, 8 p.m., www.mysistersroom.com Are you Dragnificent? This elimination series seeks out the best up-and-coming drag talent. Doors open at 8 p.m. Jungle, www.jungleatl.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 9

Thursday night is Ladies Night at Friends on Ponce and features Texas Hold’Em at 8:30 p.m. and Regina at 10 p.m., www.friendsonponce-atl.com

UPCOMING FRIDAY, JUNE 10

Always willing to explore the cutting edge of design, Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) offers a special evening with Ti

Chang, whose company, Crave, creates luxurious adult toys for women, some of which double as beautiful pieces of jewelry. Let’s Talk About Sex: An Evening with Ti Chang will take place from 7 to 9 p.m., www.museumofdesign.org

contemporary queer spots in the city, from Amsterdam Café, to Cockpit, to Mother.

6:30, beginning at the gate at 12th and Piedmont, www.facebook.com/ events/1723161811257684/

SATURDAY, JUNE 11

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE ON PAGE 38

The East Point Possums Show, the Southeast’s largest drag extravaganza, features 20 acts, food, drinks and fun.

The event is Atlanta Pride’s largest annual fundraiser. www.facebook.com/ events/1062677447138397/ Michael Carbonaro of “The Carbonaro Effect” and “Another Gay Movie” brings his magic show to the Cobb Energy Centre, 7:30 p.m., www.cobbenergycentre.com

MONDAY, JUNE 13

The second annual Queer Ride is tonight.

The tour will check out both historical and

www.thegeorgiavoice.com

THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID

By MELISSA CARTER

Youthful rebellion and comical cheap ink “Is that a tattoo?” she asked, holding back a laugh.

“Yes,” I grumbled, forgetting it was there.

At one time you only associated tattoos with members of the military, getting their ink at some exotic foreign port. Nowadays it is common to find a tattoo parlor on any suburban corner, and the attitude toward them has turned from unattractive to artistic. I wouldn’t say that’s the case with my tattoo, since most women who come across it tend to find it ridiculously funny.

Do you remember the ‘90s trend of getting your ears pierced at the top or sides rather than just the lobes? When I was in college no one in Knoxville would pierce that cartilage except tattoo parlors, since department stores distanced themselves from the risk of infection. A buddy of mine at the time wanted her ears pierced but was afraid to go into a tattoo parlor. I did not hold that fear and being the good, selfless friend I was, I volunteered to join her on her errand so she could get what she wanted. Needless to say, it was a trip that I should have put more thought into.

We were greeted by the only artist available in the small tattoo establishment and learned his name was Preacher. Apparently he was a former Southern Baptist minister and was happy to help us both with our requests. Of course I had no request since I was only there for moral support, but the good Preacher let me know that he had time for a quick tattoo if I was interested.

The power of suggestion is very strong, and as my friend went to get her long-awaited piercings my casual perusal of the tattoo art on the wall turned into a desire for rebellion.

I would get a tattoo, why not? I’m an adult now. Let’s do this!

Then Preacher asked me how much money I had, and I quickly learned the $20 in my pocket would not afford me the brilliant pieces on the wall, yet I was already fired up to chart a new course in my life - a woman www.thegeorgiavoice.com

“The power of suggestion is very strong, and as my friend went to get her long-awaited piercings my casual perusal of the tattoo art on the wall turned into a desire for rebellion. I would get a tattoo, why not? I’m an adult now. Let’s do this!” with a tattoo! We came up with a simple solution, a women’s symbol around my naval.

Preacher even used a quarter to make sure his circle was accurate, and my friend waited as I suffered through what felt like bee stings until his work was complete. How did it turn out? Let’s just say it looked as if I had done it with my own pen, in prison.

No worries, I thought, once I graduate college I’ll make money and will be able to get a more artistic tattoo to cover it and make it beautiful. Unfortunately, I went into kidney failure in my 20s before said fortune was made, and due to my transplant I am no longer allowed to get a tattoo due to risk of infection. Oh, life, you really do have a sense of humor, since a risk of infection for my friend is what got me into that parlor in the first place.

I really do forget it’s there until a moment not meant for laughter, when a woman is so caught off guard she has to say something about it. It makes me wonder where that college friend is now. Likely living happily with ear holes that have grown over, while I am stuck with my comical cheap ink.

Melissa Carter is one of the Morning Show hosts on B98.5. In addition, she is a writer for the Huffington Post. She is recognized as one of the first out radio personalities in Atlanta and one of the few in the country. Follow her on Twitter@MelissaCarter May 27, 2016 Columnists 35

SOMETIMES ‘Y’

By RYAN LEE

Bathroom Boo: An erotic perspective on modern politics The fire-eater outrage over transgender access to toilets makes me grateful that conservatives don’t know about some of the things I’ve done in public restrooms, otherwise there’s not a gay man in America who would be allowed to piss indoors. There’s an immaturity in the mainstream perception of public bathrooms, a pretending that they haven’t always been places where people can do things other than urinate, that makes it hard to engage in the current debate.

I don’t worry about transgender individuals introducing perversion into public restrooms, either directly or inadvertently, since an overwhelming majority of them, like most straight, gay and lesbian people, simply want to relieve their bladder and/or bowels. I imagine some of them, like some straight, gay and (maybe?) lesbian folks, indulge in an occasional moment of naughtiness in those restrooms – with a consensual partner, and unseen by those not involved.

No one’s arguing for the right of transgender folks to fuck in the restroom that matches their gender identity, but it feels absurd to discuss public restrooms without the baseline recognition that they’ve never been chaste. Despite the lust that’s been exchanged in them over centuries, America’s public restrooms are not breeding grounds for pedophiles and sexual predators, and it’s densely bigoted to suggest they will be made less safe or sanitary if transgender individuals aren’t screened before peeing.

This month (or maybe early June) is the 20th anniversary of the first time I had full intercourse with a guy, which, as I’ve written before, occurred in the bathroom of a public library. I had been having sex with girls for three years prior to that – in my family’s apartment, the locker rooms of public pools, and friends’ bedrooms – but knew all of the traditional venues for teenage exploration were off limits for he and I, so I penetrated him in the only locked, private chamber either of us knew.

Our public indecency lasted no more than a minute, which I’ll blame on adolescent adrenaline, and we probably spent more time cleaning up than having sex. I’ve thought about that

“Despite the lust that’s been exchanged in them over centuries, America’s public restrooms are not breeding grounds for pedophiles and sexual predators, and it’s densely bigoted to suggest they will be made less safe or sanitary if transgender individuals aren’t screened before peeing.” experience, and the summer of ’96 in general, as the song “My Boo” has been resurrected via the Running Man Challenge meme.

“It’s weird because I remember how it absolutely sucked being a closeted gay teenager,” I wrote on Facebook. “But ‘My Boo’ always fills me with a fond nostalgia for a time of secret desires, private liaisons, and simply being a fast/mannish child trying to find his way in this society.”

The status update led to a private message from a childhood classmate who is casually unbigoted toward LGBT rights, but who admitted being dazed by the explicit reminder that I was gay during that era. For him, a homosexual is something I became when I grew up, rather than something I was, something that regulated who I could be, when we were in first, third or tenth grade; when we bragged or teased about juvenile romantic exploits and interests, or showered with our teammates after practice.

I wish I could’ve been more of myself throughout childhood, that it wasn’t so clear to me that I must be someone I wasn’t in order to be loved, liked or even accepted. I resent having been forced into incomplete friendships and modified rites of passage, although there are worse stories about losing one’s virginity, I’m sure.

Ryan Lee is an Atlanta writer.

36 Columnists May 27, 2016 www.thegeorgiavoice.com

LAST WORD QPuzzle LEGENDARY LESBIAN

ACROSS 1 Instrument with several G-strings 5 Toon Le Pew 9 Long, hard one of construction workers 14 Israeli author Oz 15 Star quality 16 Fosse field 17 Able to bend over 18 “The Unicorn” author Murdoch 19 Standing up straight 20 Legendary lesbian name once of Lansing 23 Start of an online view 24 Part of UTEP 25 Locale of valuable stones 29 Playful mammal 31 Bottom’s cry 33 “QAF” network 36 Wear at the edges 37 Become like a bear 38 Legendary lesbian name once of Fort Lauderdale 40 Legendary lesbian name once of Philadelphia 41 “About Cherry” director Stephen 42 Trial run 43 NYPD rank

44 Succeeds a la Log Cabin 45 Needed some BenGay 47 Kind of IRA 48 “Etta ___” (old comic strip) 50 What an athletic supporter might do?

53 Legendary lesbian name once of Portland 57 “One of Ours” novelist Cather 60 Drag queen Gene 61 Fey of “30 Rock” 62 Poet Dickinson 63 Charged particles 64 Out partner 65 Events at Barneys 66 Petrol station choice 67 They wave their sticks in Cincinnati DOWN 1 Shakespeare’s own?

2 Greek theater opening 3 Composer Ned 4 Anthony Perkins flick of 1960 5 Two of a kind 6 Pole, for one 7 Early contest for Hillary 8 Lets up 9 Head output 10 Big yellow fruit

11 WSW opposite 12 Jock org. for UNC 13 Trysted 21 Come quickly, with “it” 22 Catch in the North Atlantic 26 Quit, with “out” 27 Brand for cutting leaves of grass 28 Adolf’s intimate Rohm 30 Russian friend of Kahlo 32 Indiana Fever’s conference 33 Look from Snidely Whiplash 34 Greeting for Dolly 35 One of the little hooters 39 Williams of “Brokeback Mountain” 40 Citrus fruit parts 42 Skin decorations 46 Arizona, on “Grey’s Anatomy”, e.g.

49 Beatles manager Brian’s nickname 51 Kind of drab 52 Adjusted guitar strings 54 G of PFLAG 55 Errol Flynn’s “The Sun ___ Rises” 56 Four of the answers in this puzzle 57 Bentley of _American Beauty_ 58 “_ ___ Yankee Doodle Dandy” 59 Like a one-incher, in Dogpatch Answers on page 34

38 Last Word May 27, 2016 www.thegeorgiavoice.com

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NEW 2016 Subaru Impreza 2.0i #GJA-01

#GAD-11

229

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MO 36 MOS LEASE

299

$

MO 36 MOS LEASE

Purchase or lease any new ((Previously reviously untitled) subaru ubaru and receive a comPlimentary com limentary factory scheduled maintenance Plan see subaru subaru added added security security maintenance maintenance Plan for intervals, coverages and for 2 years or 24,000 miles (whichever comes first.) see customer must take delivery before 12-31-2016 and reside within the Promotional romotional area. at at ParticiPating P Partici articiP Pating ating dealers only. limitations. customer rogram details and eligibility. see dealer for Program

1950 orion dr decatur ga

404-248-1888

www.STIVERSATLANTASUBARU.com all Prices Plus taX, tag and include $499 doc fee with aPProved credit. not resPonsible for mis-Prints.

Prices good until may 31st 2016.

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