From lively art festivals to sizzling beach days, discover a kaleidoscope of activities that define Provincetown. Whether you’re exploring art galleries, basking on pristine beaches, or savoring fresh seafood at picturesque waterfront eateries – unforgettable adventures begin here. Plan your escape to Provincetown, where the sun meets the sea, and every moment is a masterpiece.
“I love hearing the students’ stories, watching their excitement, seeing them put themselves out there. It didn’t really occur to us that philanthropy would become something we’d be actively involved in. We get to see that impact now.”
JIM ST. GEORGE, BA ’87 (left), who with his husband, Mark Sullivan, have made current-use and estate gifts to learning abroad, music, and theater programs at the University of Minnesota
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AN OASIS FOR ALL
In Greater Palm Springs, every traveler belongs. Explore a vibrant oasis where inclusivity and individuality shine beneath endless blue skies — and mark your calendars for November 6–9 to join us for Greater Palm Springs Pride, an annual celebration of love, joy, and community.
The 2025 Pride Edition
OUR LAVENDER
18 Party Like It’s 1995
19 Thoughts on Changes Past — No Regrets
20 Get Out of the Bleachers!
24 Richard Simon
26 Our Chosen Family vs. Loneliness
28 Through a Glass Fabulously
30 Susan Swavely
OUR SCENE
32 Lavender’s 2025 Community Pride Awards
44 Fort Lauderdale
48 The Pride of the Unexpected: Summer Travel Worth Discovering
52 My Expert Travel Advice? Live — and Let Live
56 St. Pierre Comes Marching In
60 Miss Richfield 1981 Remembers That There’s No Place Like Home
66 Broadway Star Britney Coleman Joins the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus for Pride Concert 2025
70 ‘Art + Art = Art’: The Walker Art Center Presents Representation Through Combination
74 Workshop for Independent Publishing Builds Community and Continuity
78 ‘Modern’ family: an interview with Max Mutchnick of ‘Mid-Century Modern’
82 Small Town, Big Gays: Your Friendly Queer Neighbors in Wisconsin
86 Underdog Glorious: A Personal Remembrance of Jill Sobule (1959-2025)
90 Q-Music: Pride Playlist Bingo 2025
94 Matt Fishel: The Proud Queer Rocker
96 2025 Pride What to Do Guide
98 A Community Champion on the Track
102 The Queen Rises from the Ashes Like a Phoenix
OUR LIVES
104 Giving to Get, Getting to Give: How Queermunity is Building a Regenerative Economy
108 Pride in Ourselves during these Times!
110 Guided by Opal: Dylan Bell’s Rise as a Top LGBTQ Psychic Medium
112 Don’t Give Up This Pride Month: Give OUT For LGBTQ+ Organizations!
114 Shine Out Loud - How Prism Organizing Reaches Many Through a Welcoming Arch of Love, Patience and Kindness
OUR AFFAIRS
118 Gay for Good Twin Cities Has a Good Thing Going
122 Coming of Age: Queer Youth of Faith Find Themselves in the Intersections of Identity
126 Books
128 ‘Garden State’ of mind: an interview with gay writer Daniel Meltz
133 ‘The Horseman’s Tale’: A Tale of Self-acceptance And Advocacy For Others
OUR HOMES
135 Revival and Rejuvenation: The 10-Year Restoration of a Minneapolis Mansion
136 One Cool Sedan
OUR VOICES
141 Episode 14
142 Harrisburg … Why? And for 50 years.
143 The Quiet Dance
146 Failed Hero Complex
146 If You’re Not Angry, Rejoice!
OUR RESOURCES
144 Community Connection
145 The Network
Richfield 1981
Photo by Ryan Coit
Ethan Boatner
Lakey Bridge, E.B. Boatner, Natasha DeLion, Alyssa Homeier, Terrance Griep, Shane Lueck, Elise Maren, Jen Peeples-Hampton, Linda Raines, Aspen Rush, Gregg Shapiro, Randy Stern, Susan Swavely, Natalie Trimble, Sommer Wagen, Carla Waldemar, Todd P. Walker, Emma
Lavender Media, Inc.
Stephen Rocheford 612-436-4665
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George Holdgrafer, Stephen Rocheford
Steven W. Anderson (1954-1994), Timothy J. Lee (1968-2002), Russell Berg (1957-2005), Kathryn Rocheford (1914-2006), Jonathan Halverson (1974-2010), Adam Houghtaling (1984-2012), Walker Pearce (1946-2013), Tim Campbell (1939-2015), John Townsend (1959-2019),
BY NOAH MITCHELL
Party Like It’s 1995
I hope you’ve all got your party pants on. There’s a lot to celebrate in this issue!
First of all, happy Pride Month! Lavender’s Pride Issue is our annual celebration of Minnesota’s LGBTQ+ community — sort of a Pride parade in print.
I’m sure most of you are well familiar with it, possibly more than I am, with this being my first Pride Issue in the editor’s chair. For those of you who are new, as I am, there’s a little bit of just about everything we cover throughout the year here, plus some special features like our Community Pride Awards. This is our biggest issue of the year, by far. I hope you can find time between Pride Month festivities to read it. Our writers, creative staff and sales team have all worked incredibly hard to make it happen.
In addition to Pride Month, Lavender is celebrating our 30th anniversary in this issue! As someone who’s been around for less than one of those 30 years, I feel remarkably unqualified to be the one popping the figurative champagne. However, with the bottle now in hand, I’ll try my best to not keep you waiting much longer.
A toast: I’m incredibly proud that Lavender has been able to survive and thrive as an outlet for the Minnesota LGBTQ+ community for 30 years. In my young career, I’ve already seen firsthand what a difficult industry journalism is to sustain an organization in, even with financial backing from massive conglomerates. Lavender’s ability to persist as a
Photo courtesy of BigStock/strelok
small company despite challenges like a rapidly evolving journalism industry and a once-in-a-century pandemic is incredibly inspiring to me. In my short time here, I’ve already seen how impactful Lavender can be, especially while sharing stories important to this community that aren’t featured anywhere else. Thank you to everyone who’s made it possible: Lavender’s staff, everyone who supports Lavender by advertising or putting us on their newsstand, and you, the readers. Here’s to another 30 years and beyond.
With that out of the way, go ahead and pop your bottles, clink glasses with your neighbors and get to celebrating. This is a party 30 years in the making, after all.
BY E.B. BOATNER
Thoughts on Changes Past — No Regrets
One of the books reviewed in this issue is Shannon T.L. Kearns’ “No One Taught Me How to Be a Man,” centering on his journey transitioning to his proper self.
I mentioned the title to a friend who commented that he’d confronted his own dad, saying, “I had to learn this from a book!”
“How do you think I learned?” his father replied. His father was what is now termed a cisgender male; my friend was born male but “gay,” while Kearns falls under the rubric of “trans man.”
Kearns brings needed nuance to the discussions and dissections of the term “masculinity” and the confusions of its expression, still, in this 21st century. How a “wrong” presentation, whether born with an “M” check on a birth certificate or an “F,” can lead to bullying or injury — or worse. I’m not writing here to engage Kearns, but simply to offer a few thoughts concerning the pre-trans era, a time before even elementary school kids knew the word or questioned whether or not the term applied to them.
I was born before “transgender” was a word. Before TV was ubiquitous, before there was an iPhone or internet connection to spread everything everywhere. Not that there weren’t such folks on the planet, of course. I was 10 when George William Jorgensen, Jr., traveled to Denmark to undergo sexual reassignment. They used “transsexual” and less
complimentary terms when she returned as Christine to blazing headlines. I read those newspaper articles, but they made little sense to a youngster who wanted to be a boy.
In the 1940s, the topic wasn’t talked about anywhere, since it didn’t exist. Gender as a concept wasn’t discussed at the dinner table, at school or anywhere else; the word transgender wasn’t coined until 1965, when psychiatrist John F. Oliven used the term in his book “Sexual Hygiene and Pathology.” Jorgensen is now referred to as “transgender,” but wasn’t in the headlines in 1952.
I had had a rude awakening at 8 when I was told I could no longer wear my yellow swim trunks with the gray sharks and green palm fronds, though my mom did take me to the boys’ department at G. Fox to buy boys’ dungarees. (Granted, I had to try them on in the girls’ department.) At that time, girls’ jeans had zippers down the left hip. Really? Nobody of any sex or gender peed from the left hip; and boys’ pants had deeper pockets.
And life went on. At camp one summer, I dared a friend to get crew cuts, and that’s how I appeared that fall when I was a freshman at girls’ prep school; gym there included basketball, with girls’ courts which were divided into lanes — two dribbles and you had to pass. While abroad the summer after senior year, my mother signed me up for the Holly Ball, where I
“came out” in December the old cotillion way, white gown and long gloves and a press-ganged escort. All of this occurred before 1965. By the time “trans” surfaced and I learned there was anything one could do differently (and went and did it), I was already on the threshold of geezerdom. This was well before one had to jump through hoops, and my doc just said, “Well, you obviously aren’t crazy,” and that was that. I had, by chance, landed in Minneapolis, which had and has a large GLBTetc. component, so many of the problems and fears around masculinity that Kearns discusses didn’t arise within my group. One could — still can — hug hello or good-bye, have discussions, get together for dinner and talk and have avenues to make new friends. A valid concern Kearns addresses is the masculine barrier (my term, not his) concerning men and their difficulties with expressing emotions or having close friendships other than through sports or activities. Here, I found weekly two-step dancing, breakfasts after Sunday morning runs and numerous opportunities to bond. That’s not to say there weren’t rough spots, but the first impulse wasn’t to duke it out right then and there.
Kearns brings up many topics worth considering and some suggestions for solutions. Well worth the read.
Our Mission is to End Veteran Homelessness in Minnesota
Get Out of the Bleachers!
Well, beloveds, here we are … getting close to halfway through 2025. I’m not sure how you’re doing, but I know how I’m doing. With each passing day, I’m wondering where my sense of shock and awe has gone. It’s time to get out of the bleachers, folks. I mean, it’s really past time.
I have a healthy concern for where this country is headed. Like many of you, I have asked myself over and over, “What can I do?”
What can we do? What can I do? What can you do, ally? Because there’s no more wall-flowering it. There’s no more sitting quietly in the background, nodding your head in agreement with what other allies are doing and allowing it to stop there. There’s no more hiding behind a keyboard, profusely agreeing with others but then living your life in support of those who are doing harm to the queer community. Those days are done. I mean, if you’re really an ally, those days are done, finished, over, not going back there, done.
Allow me to share with you what’s working for me, so far, anyway. See if anything resonates with you.
I don’t know where you are on the journey, but I can promise you that if you’re an ally reading this, I’ve walked every step you’re on. I see the younger generations doing a much better job than my generation has done, but there’s still discrimination all over the place that tells us the work continues.
For parents, family and friends, there is a bit of a “coming out” process, and it’s different for
all of us. I get that. For me, it was some grief (I wasn’t going to see my son in some wedding getting hitched with a woman in a white gown. … Ok, that seems even silly to write now, with who and what I am, but I promise you that at the time, those grief feelings were very real). Then, worry (oh, the constant worry about him being the next Matthew Shepherd — Rest in Peace and Power, Matthew). Then, changing up the church we were going to (another story, another time). Then, the friendships that ended (oh, if I would have only known I didn’t need to be so sad at that time because, honestly, our friendships with queer folks are so much better and deeper and soul-filled — and the glitter!) Then, the acceptance and the determination and drive to make this world safer for all people walking planet Earth, especially those society has tossed in the margins, so cruelly and without a thought.
Somewhere along my own journey, I decided, nope, things are going to change in my own life in a big way, and that’s what I’ve done. Where are you in that journey, ally?
First, gather up with community. Right now. Have you sent your notes, messages, texts to your family and friends in the queer community yet? Telling them you’re with them, you love them and you’re not leaving them regardless of what comes down the street in this country? Have you told them you’re beside them in the fight? (I mean, trust me, it’s a fight — just ask any of your queer beloveds if they feel at peace right now.) Have you
asked them how they’re doing? Have you had your lunch, dinner, coffee or theatre dates with them, and hugged and promised them there are millions of us allies with them and they’re not alone? Have you volunteered with queer-specific non-profits and shown up and listened and smiled and put a reassuring hand out? Have you asked other family and friends to get involved?
Again, now is the time to gather up with community and show them they’re not alone. For any of us who have ever been in the margins for any reason in our lifetime, we know it’s a very lonely place to be. To feel outcast, to feel like we don’t matter, to feel like society is, well, out to get us, to know many others are voting our rights away. However you can show up, please do. Lives are depending on it (take the time to check out suicide rates for the queer community).
Secondly, your beloveds are watching. Your children, nephews, nieces, neighbors, uncles, aunts, parents, extended families, the family across the street with two moms or two dads, the family next door who is a different color than you … they’re all watching. And listening. Now, this can be as simple as flying a Pride flag (which we do at our house — there’s no doubt to anybody in our neighborhood where we stand. And we live close to a high school. I always hope some of those high school kids see our flag and know they’ve got somebody in the community pulling for them). Or, gathering for a meal or a beer in the garage or
whatever you can come up with to let others know you are a safe person and space.
How was the conversation at any of your holiday gatherings? Because your queer nephew who maybe isn’t quite out yet doesn’t want to be asked if he has a girlfriend yet. Your trans college-age relative who has a new name doesn’t want to be deadnamed at a family function (or anywhere). Your niece, who so badly wants to play football, doesn’t want to be discouraged with the expectation that she’ll “settle down one day with a nice man.” (She may not be queer, but seriously, we women are so tired of being boxed in — ugh.) People are watching. They are paying attention. And the community knows who is safe and who isn’t. Are you throwing out safe energy, or are you that person who isn’t? There really isn’t any in-between. You decide who you are.
Finally, let’s get to the tough stuff. Checking our own privileges. So, allies, we live in these straight bodies; for me, it’s a straight, white body. That means from my first breath, I’ve been conditioned in certain ways that I see my life, my essence and my being. We’ve got to dig deep, explore our privilege and figure out real quick, as in right now, that’s not how the rest of planet Earth is living. You need to start asking yourself the hard questions. Am I right? Am I on the right side of history? Where am I in this moral arc? Is there another possible way to see this? What about other people? What about my queer child who no longer wants
contact with me? Who’s in my circle? Is this all about my money, or is this all about relationships? What is internal bias? Do I have it? (Trust me, you do, all of us white folks do.) What can I do about it? If we say we want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem, it has to start within each of us. And that means doing your own self-work first. Now, there’s nothing in me that’s trying to shame you here, I promise (shame is gross). If you’re at a different part of your journey, that’s ok. I should say, that’s ok as long as you’re not doing harm. If you’re doing harm, it would be good to get your head out of your ass but hey, that’s on you, and I’m going to breeze right by you because the rest of us don’t have the time or energy to sink into you. We’re too busy putting our love, time, energy and dollars into making this world safer for our queer beloveds.
For the allies, I hope some of this is even a tiny bit helpful. Reaching out to my queer loved ones and asking how I can help or asking what I can do has been helpful. Checking my privilege on a daily basis is necessary. Asking myself how I can show up in this life is what I meditate on daily. I wish it were as easy as taking out a recipe card and following the recipe, but it’s not. It requires a commitment. It requires a lot of listening and very little talking. It requires showing up, pitching in, bringing your best self and being a team player. But I promise you it matters, now more than ever. Yes, my gay son was the beginning of my journey, but
it’s turned into so much more. Because there are queer folks all over the world who are not able to live the life they were born to live because of fear. What can I do about that fear? What can you do? What can we do?
I know now, like never before, the only way I’m going to get through the future is with community. All of us working together, standing up for those in the margins, asking the hard questions, having the conversations and sometimes clearing out the people I thought were friends and finding other relationships. Hey, that’s just good, healthy boundaries. Truly, the time is this minute to get out of the bleachers and onto the playing field. Stop passively observing and start actively participating. Lives are depending on it. Folks, let’s do this. I’ll see you on the field!
Michelle Gunderson Bahr is Lavender’s Ally of the Year 2024 recipient. She is first and foremost an activist and advocate for the queer community. She is a mother who is especially proud of her gay son Cole and his husband Paul, along with being a wife and grandmother of 6. She is in private practice as a therapist in Scott County with a specialty in substance use disorder, receiving her Master’s degree in Human Development from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. For several years, she has been an active speaker at metro area churches, sharing her journey as the mom of a gay son, along with serving for five years on the Board of Directors at The Aliveness Project. She has been the lead banner carrier for 15 years in the Ashley Rukes Pride Parade for Twin Cities Pride and is an active volunteer throughout the year with Twin Cities Pride.
Michelle Gunderson Bahr
BY LINDA RAINES
Richard Simon
Where did you grow up? I grew up in Rush City, Minn. I graduated there in 1977.
Where do you live? I live in Pine City, Minn.
Who do you live with? I live alone.
What is your occupation? I was a cook for 50 years, 1973-2023, but I’m retired.
When did you come out? My family found out in ’79. How’d that go? I was moving to Ft. Lauderdale, and my sister and grandmother helped me pack. My sister found gay porno in the trash while looking for paper to wrap a glass, lol.
When do you wake up? 6 a.m.
Phone alarm or old school alarm? After breakfast cooking for 50 years, I wake up naturally at 6 a.m. What’s the first thing you do in the morning? I drink three cups of coffee. Breakfast? Banana, mandarin oranges and chocolate-covered donuts.
Coffee? Three cups
Cream or no? No
How do you spend your commute? I don’t! What do you nerd out for (gaming, music, history, etc.)? I enjoy bar Texas Hold ’em tournaments. I quit drinking 4 1/2 years ago, so bar tournaments give me an excuse to go to bars. What music have you been digging lately? Shaboozey, Jelly Roll
Is your workspace tidy or a hot mess? Tidy
What’s been your favorite job? I ran the taco bar at the Gay ‘90s in ’94 and ’95. If I didn’t get a tip, I’d threaten to give them less meat, lol. Favorite weeknight meal: Go out, takeout or cook in? Tacos, made by me, with all the fixings.
On a usual weeknight, you are doing what? I hate to admit it, Texas Hold ’em, four nights a week.
Bedtime? 9 p.m.
Favorite weekend activity? Sunday Funday! I visit my 86-year-old mother and my 1 1/2-yearold great-nephew, Kace. I also go for a walk with Ekko, my niece’s lab.
What are you most proud of, and why? My days of activism! I helped organize the March on Mora 35 years ago for ACT UP Minnesota. I also helped organize the March on City Hall during the Minneapolis gay serial killings. Besides my street activism, I was involved in DFL politics. I was a precinct chairman in Loring Park, and I was on the CLPC board. In 1990, I got the DFL State Convention to support a resolution for marijuana for medical use by prescription. It passed and was placed in the party platform, with over 70% support.
Words of wisdom to share: I was involved in so many groups. I spread myself too thin and got burnt out. I should have spent more time working on myself, but I have no regrets.
Photo courtesy of Richard Simon
Dr. Madeline Stead Dr. Megan Mulligan
Our Chosen Family vs. Loneliness
As America enters, perhaps, its final episode of “democracy” with President Trump at the helm, it’s important not to forget the value of chosen family. A chosen family is a group of people who intentionally choose to love and support one another, regardless of blood or legal ties.
Currently, a leaked budget proposal under review by Congress reveals that the Trump administration plans to cut funding for specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Since its launch in July 2022, the 988 line has provided trained counselors, often with lived experience, to support high-risk groups, including veterans and LGBTQ+ youth. The Trevor Project is one of seven federally funded organizations offering these critical services.
“Just this year alone, in January and February, it’s about 100,000 contacts with the line, which means that there are a lot of people who
identify as LGBTQ+ who are seeking help,” says psychologist Benjamin Miller, adjunct professor at Stanford School of Medicine. According to SAMHSA, nearly 1.3 million LGBTQ+ individuals have reached out to 988 via call, text or online chat since the line’s launch.
Why the rise in calls? It’s not just one reason. The lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing political attacks against LGBTQ+ people and the isolating nature of social media all play a role. But perhaps more urgent is the crisis of loneliness. In May 2024, then-Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared loneliness and social isolation a national healthcare crisis.
A University of Arizona study found that loneliness tends to creep in when people spend more than three-quarters of their time alone. Once that line is crossed, it becomes difficult to avoid the emotional effects. These feelings do not improve with age. For many LGBTQ+
individuals, loneliness intensifies over time due to family rejection, lack of a life partner or the painful need to hide their identity in senior living environments.
This is especially relevant in Minnesota, now recognized as a “transgender refuge state.” Many have relocated here for safety, often without a support network, leaving behind familiarity in exchange for survival. That kind of move, while sometimes life-saving, also increases vulnerability to isolation.
But we don’t have to be passive observers of this loneliness epidemic. We can take simple, meaningful actions to make a difference. Think of someone you care about: someone you miss, someone going through a tough time or even someone with whom you’ve lost touch. Send them a quick message and ask if you can talk for just eight minutes — over the phone or video — sometime this week. After that brief call, set a time to check in again and commit to it.
It might seem small, but hearing a loved one’s voice can be deeply regulating for both people. It’s a powerful antidote to isolation — even if only temporary.
I recently heard a quote that resonates deeply: “When people fall in love with your flowers and not your roots, they don’t know what to do when autumn comes.”
This beautifully illustrates the danger of surface-level relationships. “Flowers” symbolize outward traits — appearance, status, hobbies — while “roots” reflect values, character and emotional depth. “Autumn” represents times of change or difficulty. When relationships aren’t truly grounded in “what’s real,” they often wither under pressure.
Those fortunate enough to build deep-rooted connections know how painful it is to lose them. Whether it’s your fifth or 15th autumn together, those losses can be some of the most devastating. For others, watching such bonds from a distance can stir a longing to experience that kind of loving friendship themselves.
As a marginalized community, every life matters deeply. Losing even one member is too many. Last month, we lost one of those bright lights. Outwardly, he appeared to be doing well, but that wasn’t the reality. He left us far too soon.
Please don’t let the filtered lens of social media fool you — more people are hurting than you might imagine. Now more than ever, it’s time to reach out to those in your chosen family, and even those who aren’t, and schedule that eight-minute check-in call. It could truly make all the difference.
RIP: KG. We already miss you.
BY LINDA RAINES
Through a Glass Fabulously
Pride … just the word conjures up images of rainbows and confetti, balloons, floats, drag queens, music and dancing. Parades. Happiness. Fun. Celebrating the diversity of our community with laughter and joy and the knowledge that this is our month to show the world who we are and how we fit into every aspect of society.
This year, Lavender launches the Pride season with our annual Summer of Pride Kickoff Party which will undoubtedly be every bit the extravaganza that our readers have come to expect.
Lavender’s 2025 Kickoff Party is slated to be held June 5 at the elegant and inviting Glass House, a unique venue that promises to be different from anything Lavender has used before, perfect for celebrating the 30th anniversary of the very existence of the magazine itself.
Glass House is appropriately named since glass is the heart, soul and foundation of the building, which was built in 1955. The Ford McNutt Company needed a new building to house its glass warehouse and mirror manufacturing plant and decided to hire the same architectural firm that designed the Foshay Tower in 1929. The 30,000-square-foot building was later sold to Brin Northwestern Glass and used as a manufacturing facility until 2016 when it was sold to Hennepin Made. Subsequently, the space became half glass-blowing studio with the other half dedicated to showcasing the studio’s creations.
The building has since seen a renaissance as a retreat for artists, a center for cultural exploration, and a unique and elegant venue for special events, lectures and various celebrations.
Located in the up-and-coming Root District situated on the fringes of Minneapolis’s North Loop, Glass House offers four different venues — Holden Room, Café Room, Glass Room and The Courtyard — that can accommodate events both intimate and expansive. Lavender’s Summer of Pride Kickoff Party will be held in Holden Room, which will welcome attendees into a wide-open, contemporary space filled with natural light that is just right for a fête that celebrates 30 years of being the premiere LGBTQ+ publication in the Twin Cities as well as the beginning of Pride month.
Elegant glass pendant lighting, handblown by Hennepin Made’s own glassblowers, twinkles overhead, suspended from the soaring ceiling and setting the mood for a truly memorable summer evening with friends and the community. Complimentary appetizers will be provided by Chowgirls Catering (@chowgirlscatering) and Green Mangos Catering (@greenmangoscatering), and a cash bar with Lavender-themed drink specials will keep guests feeling festive throughout the evening.
Attendees will be able to register for awesome prizes at the Lavender welcome table before stepping into the elegantly spacious event space where they’ll be welcomed by multitudes of vendor
tables representing many businesses, organizations, and nonprofits that support, welcome, and serve our community. Numerous local LGBTQ+ sports leagues will also be in attendance, welcoming your questions on how to come out to support their games or, better yet, to sign up to be part of their teams. Several of the Twin Cities’ professional teams will also be on hand with representatives eager to talk about how they appreciate our community coming out to cheer the players on at games and matches.
Be prepared to enjoy delicious hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, chances to register to win great prizes, pick up fun swag and promotions, and peruse the information and offerings from a dazzling array of tables staffed by representatives from local LGBTQ+ nonprofits, LGBTQ+ sports teams and organizations and Minnesota’s professional sports teams.
There is onsite parking available along with several other options on city streets as well as at the nearby Minneapolis Farmer’s Market. Attendees are also encouraged to bike or consider the use of rideshare options.
Lavender’s Summer of Pride Kickoff Party
June 5 • 5:30-8 p.m.
Glass House
145 Holden St. N., Minneapolis www.glasshousemn.com
Outdoor image of the building and two gentlemen at the bar. Photos by Sarah Ascanio. (@saraascanio). Two women talking and crowd in Holden Room. Photo by Nastia Krinitsyn (@nkrinitsyn222)
hennepinhealthcare.org/gender
BY LINDA RAINES
Susan Swavely
Where did you grow up, and what was that like? I grew up in rural southern Appalachia, and I am so thankful for it. I’m from the upstate of South Carolina, even though I was technically born in Charleston, S.C. It’s beautiful there; the mountains, the chirping crickets, the mourning doves, the trees: green and green and green forever. Appalachia is a bittersweet place to me, because, as a queer person, there are a lot of reasons not to go back, of course: the politics, especially. But there is a lot of love there too, when I visit my family and friends and see my mountains and forests. I wouldn’t change being from the sticks, ever.
How long have you been a writer, and how’d you get into it? I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember. I know, I know. That’s a horrible answer, but it’s true. I grew up writing stories in my notebooks on long car trips (to see my family in Southern Florida), and then forcing my siblings to listen to them as I read aloud.
Then, when I got to high school, I was able to take my first creative writing course, where I actually wrote an essay that got published in the local paper and won me a first prize, a little cash and some pretty great bragging rights.
I majored in English (and theatre) in college, with a concentration in creative writing, and I really feel like that’s where I found my stride. I write mostly plays and fiction creatively, now, and I freelance and contribute to many magazines, as well as full-time staff write for a media company as well.
What are you reading/watching/listening to these days? Well, I just finished “Sunrise on the Reaping,” the newest “Hunger Games” book, and I love, love, loved it. I do genuinely believe these books will become part of the canon, one day: perfectly political, human and beautifully written. Next on my list is “Open Throat” by Henry Hoke.
I’m also listening to “Achilles”by Kevin Atwater on repeat these days — and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves sad gay music (so, definitely everyone reading this, lol). It’s a total no-skip album.
As far as TV, I’m rewatching “Sex Education”for the millionth time. I’m terrible at watching TV, and I always end up going back to my old favorites.
Who or what inspires you? I’m too much of a lover boy for this question. Everything inspires me. I’m so inspired by other art that I consume. I watch a film and I want to write a film. I see a play, guess what I want to do.
I’d say the stories that inspire me the most are the deeply moving, deeply human ones. I love to watch people triumph against the odds. I’m inspired by people who create, especially when they do it all themselves.
Favorite qualities in another person? My favorite quality in another person has gotta be a good sense of humor. My friends are all compassionate, kind and smart, and they’re all funny as hell. I adore that. I think someone who has a good sense of humor is one of the most important things.
Least favorite? I don’t like cynics. I don’t mind realism, but when someone is hypercritical of everything? Not a fan.
Where’s your happy place? I have lots of happy places. I love sitting on my back porch with my dog and my partner, with a fancy mixed drink in my hand. I love my pole dancing studio, my favorite coffee shop, next to my house … the list goes on. Anywhere I’m surrounded by people I love or things I love … or where I get to plug in my laptop and write!
What is your motto? I always tell people, when they ask about how I don’t burn out from writing all day: for fun, for work, as a side hustle … “The candle can’t burn out when it’s lit from within, even if it’s on fire on both ends.” I mean that. Do something you love, and love it, all of it, until it’s dry. I don’t imagine writing will ever be dry for me.
Photo by Eddie Pinson
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Patrick Scully
Patrick Scully needs no introduction. He is, after all, the subject of the 2025 documentary film “The Dance Is Not Over” — a well-deserved accolade in itself, joining many others; the fruits of a life dedicated to art, service and activism.
Scully’s life, achievements and perspective are best relayed in his own words.
“I feel honored to receive your award, and at the same time, I want to say that I could never have done it on my own,” Scully says. “I’ve always had a supportive community surrounding me that’s made it possible to do what I’ve done in my lifetime as an artist.”
Scully continues: “When I first started performing in the 1970s, there were no places in town that were supportive of out, gay artists embracing their identity in the work that they were creating. I feel like I was born, timewise, at just the right time to be part of that first generation of post-Stonewall artists who dared to say, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, we’re fabulous, get used to us,’ and start to create space so that so that a person wouldn’t have to worry about, ‘Can I show my work if people know that I’m gay, and if my work makes that obvious?’
“That, to me, was part of what I feel like I encountered from my very first years in early adulthood: the importance of coming out, not just to family and friends, but also coming out in the art world to create space so that I didn’t have to try to pass, so that I could be myself. And along the way, then gathering with like-minded colleagues and finding support for doing that both within our community and then from allies of our community that supported me not only in the work that I created and put out in the world, but supported me in creating Patrick’s Cabaret. And, with the cabaret, creating a venue that supported hundreds, probably even thousands, of artists over the decades that it existed.
“It also made it obvious to me when I learned in 1985 that I was HIV-positive that I needed to go through that same process again of coming out about living with HIV. And, in doing that, creating, again, a kind of space for people to think differently about it, to counter the mainstream narrative, which was telling us at the time, ‘You’re all gonna die pretty quick anyhow.’ And figuring out how to band together with other people to find support, to find alternatives, to challenge the system, so that we could survive. And clearly not all of us did, but some of us have. I feel proud to have been a voice, through being public about my HIV status as an artist, that made it easier for people to live their lives, because I was reflecting a kind of reality back to people that they weren’t seeing in lots of places.
“I almost feel like there wasn’t a choice. I just did what came naturally to me because of how I understood myself and how I felt like I needed to move through the world in order to be true to myself. Because I always thought it’s better to have just a few close friends who really love me for who I am than to be loved by the world for 10% of who I am. If there’s any lesson to be learned, as I look back on it, it’s, there were times when I made choices that I realized that I was sticking my neck out there. But I always felt like, when I’m laid in the ground, I wanna be remembered for having had the courage to live authentically rather than be remembered for having made choices to be comfortable.
“I realize that as a white gay man, there are privileges that I have that make it easier in some ways for me to make those choices, but at the same time, I know in my heart of hearts that I grew up in a world that did not want me to make the choices that I made. … Somehow, though, maybe it’s ‘cause I grew up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and especially being a child in the ‘60s and that era of examine truth and don’t trust everything you’re told, maybe that helped me to have the courage to to follow the path that I took and make the choices that I made.
“And the other thing that I would add is, as I look at our current political situation, I fear that all of the gains that we’ve made in my lifetime as a community are under threat. But that also points me toward our resiliency. I grew
up in a time when none of the rights that we now have existed, and yet we triumphed over that, we came through that, we pushed back and created, and we’re here now. So, my hope is that through the wisdom that we’ve gained in these last 50 years, we will figure out how to overcome the adversity that we currently face and continue to make a better world for us and for everybody that the system would choose to have be invisible.
“It fills my heart to know that, in some ways, having been down the path that I’ve been down has made it easier for other people and has created possibilities for people to do things that didn’t used to exist. That’s a good thing, you know, when we as human beings are living our lives authentically, and as a result, that sort of spreads and gets paid forward and grows and multiplies. That’s deeply satisfying.”
Congratulations to Patrick Scully on an incredible life and career. This award is but a fraction of the recognition his immense impact on the Twin Cities LGBTQ+ community deserves.
Photos courtesy of Patrick Scully
Lifetime Achievement
Dylan Boyer
Dylan Boyer, director of development at The Aliveness Project, was faced with immense challenges over the past year since the July 2024 closure of Rainbow Health. Boyer and Aliveness have navigated the ensuing increase in demand for HIV services, as well as sudden changes to federal funding for nonprofits, remarkably well.
Not only have Boyer and Aliveness survived the past year, but they’ve also managed to expand. On December 1, 2024, World AIDS Day, Aliveness opened its community-led HIV Pharmacy and Clinic.
As director of development, Boyer led Aliveness’ Red Undie Run and Dining Out for Life fundraisers. He also advocates for funding to combat HIV and provide HIV services from state and federal legislatures.
Boyer began his work at The Aliveness Project as a volunteer in 2018. He quickly transitioned from volunteer to employee work, becoming communications and event manager the same year, before beginning as director of development in 2022.
“This award means a lot to me, not just as a nonprofit leader, but as someone who’s been living with HIV for almost 10 years,” Boyer says. “I choose to be loud about my status because breaking stigma starts with being seen and heard. This recognition is a reminder that leading with authenticity and joy really does make a difference.”
With this award, Lavender hopes to not only recognize the work Boyer has done so far but also call attention to the great work we expect he’ll continue to do going forward.
THE HIV CRISIS IS NOT OVER
Photo courtesy of Dylan Boyer
Julie Schanke Lyford
Julie Schanke Lyford will be a familiar name to longtime Lavender readers — she received a Lavender Magazine Community Award in 2014 for her work in advocating for marriage equality for LGBTQ+ people.
Lyford shared her story of growing up with two fathers to advocate for the passage of the Freedom to Marry Act. She also collaborated with Lavender to create the Wedding Tent at the Twin Cities Pride Festival, where couples could get married on the spot.
Lyford’s public advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community hasn’t slowed down since. She authored the children’s book “Katy Has Two Grampas,” providing a positive example of LGBTQ+ family life at a time when books with LGBTQ+ representation are being removed from some school libraries.
Her new book, “Adi’s Animal Adventures,” teaches young readers not only about animals but also about what acceptance of queer youth at school looks like.
“I am thrilled to be awarded the Lavender Magazine Community Pride Ally Award. Growing up with gay dads, I’ve been an ally since I can remember, but the real work began while fighting for the Freedom to Marry Act,” Lyford says. “For me, the most important part of being an activist is raising a family of allies. My children, who grew up making handmade signs and protesting at the capitol, are part of the next generation of folks using their voices where they are most needed. This award is for my dads, my kids, and for everyone who doesn’t feel heard.”
The example set by Lyford for how to be an ally and advocate, even when faced with adversity, will inspire not only her own children but every child who reads her books and all the people the young allies she helps cultivate interact with.
Photo courtesy of Julie Schanke Lyford
Ally
The Bridge for Youth
Over 6,000 youth in Minnesota experience homelessness on any given night. Over 23% of them identify as LGBTQ+. The Bridge for Youth provides them with a safe, welcoming place to stay when they need it most.
“For 55 years, The Bridge has been a safe place for all youth,” says Lisa Mears, president of The Bridge for Youth. “The Bridge provides emergency shelter and housing when youth don’t feel safe, accepted, or supported in their identity, additionally providing specialized case management, therapeutic health supports, access to gender affirming care, resource connections, and more.”
The Bridge doesn’t settle for attempting to create a welcoming environment via passive acceptance; rather, they actively create space for LGBTQ+ youth to express themselves.
“The Bridge is home to the Twin Cities’ longest running LGBTQ+ youth support group, ‘So What If I Am?’, a space that uplifts queer voices for a community of youth and young adults experiencing homelessness and instability,” Mears says. “The group is essential as The Bridge works to build a community where all youth feel safe, accepted, and supported.”
Mears continues, “We come to this work with love and care, authentically welcoming queer youth, bringing our Mobile Youth Outreach Center to Twin Cities Pride year after year, providing specialized supports for LGBTQ+ youth, finding opportunities to celebrate community together, and more. It is core to The Bridge’s mission that we support all LGBTQ+ identifying youth. And we promise to continue walking with them, especially at this point in time where allyship and community response is needed more than ever.”
The Bridge’s work to create a welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ youth at such a critical juncture creates an impact that is impossible to measure.
Photo courtesy of Brittney Riedinger
A Bar of Their Own
Since its opening in March 2024, A Bar of Their Own has created a place to celebrate and enjoy women’s sports — one that is unique in Minnesota for its complete dedication to women athletes.
It has also shone as an example of a successful LGBTQ+-owned small business. Owner Jillian Hiscock and her wife, Megan, are active on community sports teams, with Jillian being a regular at Stonewall Sports.
A Bar of Their Own is represented not only in local sports but also at the highest level of the professional game — Minnesota Lynx head coach and President of Basketball Operations Cheryl Reeve sported a Bar of Their Own shirt during Game 4 of the WNBA Finals.
The connection between the Lynx, whose president of business operations, Carley Knox, was featured on the cover of last year’s Lavender Pride Issue, and A Bar of Their Own is a reminder of the connection between the visibility of women’s sports and the LGBTQ+ community. As more eyes are drawn to women’s sports, they are also drawn to LGBTQ+ athletes and team personnel, who are much more visible in women’s sports than men’s.
In addition to bringing visibility to women’s sports, A Bar of Their Own also supports participation in local women’s and girls’ sports via A Fund of Their Own. Proceeds from the fund will be used to sponsor participation in camps and equipment purchases around the Twin Cities metro area.
“A Bar of Their Own is honored to receive the 2025 Community Pride Small Business Award!” Hiscock says. “Our mission has always been to create a welcoming, inclusive space where the LGBTQIA+ community can feel seen, celebrated, and supported. This recognition reaffirms our commitment to building a community where everyone belongs, and we are incredibly grateful!”
Photo courtesy of Julie Schanke Lyford
Small Business
@wishofalifetime
Lunds & Byerlys
Lunds & Byerlys has continued to stand by the LGBTQ+ community and promote LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace at a time when many corporations across the country have publicly backed away.
Its commitment to inclusion is present from its stores, which feature Pride decorations and baked goods to celebrate the Pride season, to the very top of the company.
“We are steadfast in our belief that inclusion and belonging are fundamental to a thriving workplace and community,” says Tisha Maksimovich, chair of Lunds & Byerlys’ DEI Advisory Council. “These principles are not merely aspirations; they are commitments embedded in the fabric of our culture. We recognize that fostering an environment where every individual feels valued, respected and empowered is not only the right thing to do but also essential to our collective success.”
Lunds & Byerlys also regularly has a large presence at Golden Valley Pride, and LGBTQ+ organizations find themselves at home in the meeting rooms within its stores.
While other companies are dismantling their internal support for LGBTQ+ people, Lunds & Byerlys is furthering theirs.
“While we are always working toward a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture, we know that there will always be more work to do,” its website says. “Through the relationships with our team members, our partnerships and our customers, we have our sights set on building a community of openness, empowerment and opportunity.”
Standing by the LGBTQ+ community as a corporation is always admirable, but Lunds & Byerlys doing so in a year when it’s especially unpopular deserves special recognition.
Photo by Barry Leavitt
Fort Lauderdale
Nestled along the pristine shores of Fort Lauderdale, the Pelican Grand Beach Resort stands as a beacon of luxury and relaxation. This exquisite resort, with its timeless charm and breathtaking oceanfront views, has become a haven for travelers seeking an unforgettable escape.
The Pelican Grand is a beachfront retreat that seamlessly blends oldworld elegance with modern comforts. Located on the famous A1A Highway, the resort’s prime location offers guests direct access to the golden sands of the Atlantic Ocean. The moment you step into the grand lobby, you are greeted by a sense of opulence that sets the tone for your stay.
The resort boasts a range of accommodation options, from well-appointed guest rooms to spacious suites, each designed with meticulous attention to detail. The rooms are adorned with coastal-inspired decor, creating a serene ambiance that complements the natural beauty just outside the window. Private balconies provide panoramic views of the ocean, allowing guests to soak in the breathtaking sunrises and sunsets that define the Fort Lauderdale experience.
Sunrise Paddleboard, Cedar Plank Salmon, Sunset on the Beach. Photos by Joey Amato
One of the standout features of the Pelican Grand is its exceptional dining options. Ocean2000, the resort’s signature restaurant, offers a culinary journey that showcases the freshest seafood and locally sourced ingredients. Guests can savor their meals while enjoying the soothing sound of waves and the gentle ocean breeze. I visited the restaurant for breakfast and dinner during my stay.
The food at Ocean2000 is top-notch. Breakfast items include a variety of elevated benedict options as well as more traditional selections, including avocado toast, steel-cut oatmeal and a fun spin on huevos rancheros.
For dinner, my partner and I began our meal with the Ahi Tuna Tartare as well as a Crab and Lobster cake. Both items were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The tuna especially was so fresh and was accompanied by a citrus-ginger soy sauce with house-made potato chips. The entrees were just as special. The Seafood Risotto was creamy and perfectly cooked, served with lobster, scallops and shrimp. It is a bit heavy, so I would recommend sharing this dish with a guest. The Cedar Plank Salmon was a favorite, served with a Vermont maple syrup-soy glaze, stirfried grains, sweet peas and corn.
For those seeking relaxation, the Pelican Grand offers a full-service spa where guests can indulge in a range of rejuvenating treatments. The oceanfront pool provides a refreshing oasis, surrounded by lush landscaping and comfortable loungers. Fitness enthusiasts can maintain their workout routine at the resort’s state-of-the-art fitness center, ensuring a well-rounded experience for all guests.
zealous advocates
WE TAKE GREAT PRIDE IN LGBTQ+ EQUALITY. Dorsey understands that fairness, equality, and respect are not just fundamental to the law. They are fundamental to productive workplaces and peaceful communities. Dorsey is committed to being an inclusive organization that values diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and contributions. Learn more at www.dorsey.com/diversity.
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Beyond the confines of the resort, guests can explore the vibrant city of Fort Lauderdale. The Pelican Grand’s strategic location allows easy access to popular attractions such as boutiques and art galleries on Las Olas Boulevard and the Bonnet House Museum & Gardens.
This enchanting estate, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, beckons visitors to step back in time and immerse themselves in the unique legacy of its former owners, artist Frederic Clay Bartlett and his wife, Evelyn Fortune Bartlett. The Bonnet House, built in 1920, is a charming plantation-style home that served as the winter retreat for the Bartletts. Its design reflects a mix of Caribbean, plantation and Art Deco influences, creating a visually captivating structure. The house’s name is derived from the bonnet lily, which flourishes in the estate’s lush gardens.
Frederic Clay Bartlett, an accomplished artist, used the Bonnet House as his creative sanctuary. Today, visitors can explore the house’s interior and marvel at the impressive collection of Bartlett’s artworks, including paintings, drawings and sculptures. The house itself is a canvas, adorned with vibrant colors and intricate details that highlight the artist’s unique vision.
The Bonnet House also boasts an extensive collection of decorative arts and personal artifacts belonging to the Bartletts. Each room tells a story, offering a glimpse into the couple’s passion for the arts and their love for travel.
If you prefer a more physical adventure, book a tour with Sunrise Paddleboards. Our knowledgeable and friendly guide led us on a two-hour tour of Wilton Manors, snaking us through mangroves on the Middle River. Although we chose to kayak, the company offers paddleboards as well as
alternative to kayaking and a great core workout.
After your tour, head to The House on the River for a wonderful riverside dinner. Start your meal with an order of Crispy Brussels Sprouts prepared with avocado honey and balsamic. This was one of my favorite takes on Brussels sprouts I have ever had. Needless to say, the plate was wiped clean. For our entrees, we ordered the Snapper Filet and the Shrimp and Crab Squid Ink Tagliatelle. Both items were prepared beautifully, although I did favor the snapper over the pasta. The House on the River is located just off downtown Fort Lauderdale’s famed Las Olas Boulevard and within walking distance of the Broward Performing Arts Center, so it is the perfect place to catch dinner before a show.
Fort Lauderdale never disappoints. The destination offers something for everyone. Whether you are looking for some fun in the sun or reveling in LGBTQ+ nightlife in nearby Wilton Manors, Fort Lauderdale has it all.
Enjoy the Journey!
private lessons for those who may not have tried paddleboarding. It is a fun
The Bonnet House, Crispy Brussels Sprouts at The House on the River. Photos courtesy of Joey Amato. Pelican Grand Beach Resort. Photo courtesy of Pelican Grand Beach Resort
The Pride of the Unexpected: Summer Travel Worth Discovering
Summer 2025 is all about being intentional with your travel. Rather than defaulting to the same coastal cities or overbooked hot spots, it might be time to look inward. There’s a fresh energy in overlooked destinations — places that may not make every top 10 list, but consistently deliver memorable summer experiences. Think great food, walkable neighborhoods, vibrant cultural scenes and a strong sense of local pride.
Sometimes the best travel discoveries are places you’ve overlooked. These four cities are ready for your attention. Each one is packed with character, easy to access and full of warm-weather experiences — from lakeside lounging to rodeos, rooftop concerts to historic walking tours. These aren’t bucket-list cities. They’re the kind of places you didn’t know you needed — until now.
Spokane, Wash.
Spokane thrives in the summer. The city comes alive with riverfront events, outdoor dining and sun-soaked hikes in the surrounding bluffs and trails. Spokane Falls is roaring, patios are packed and the city’s arts festivals and night markets give visitors plenty to explore. There’s a sense of ease here that feels refreshing — laid-back but not boring, and surprisingly lively once you get to know it. From river rafting to gallery hopping, it offers a summer lineup that balances chill with culture.
Don’t Miss: A ride on the Numerica SkyRide over the falls, brunch at Bruncheonette, art and exhibits at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, and live music in the historic Garland District.
Where to Stay: The Louie — Spokane’s newest boutique hotel blends contemporary design with a historic downtown setting.
Fun Fact: Spokane’s nickname, the “Lilac City,” is celebrated each May during the Lilac Festival, a civic tradition dating back to 1938.
Spokane Pride is held June 8 at Riverfront Park. It’s a relaxed, familyfriendly event with a strong local following and an emphasis on community. LGBTQ+ nightlife hubs like The Globe Bar & Kitchen help maintain visibility and inclusiveness all year.
Getting There: A three-hour direct flight from MSP lands you in Spokane, with easy access to downtown.
Madison, Wis.
Madison in the summer feels like one long outdoor block party. The city is surrounded by lakes, laced with bike paths and animated by festivals nearly every weekend. Locals kayak before work, lounge on the Memorial Union Terrace with pitchers of beer and flood State Street after farmers market runs. The city balances outdoorsy energy with an intellectual, creative streak that gives it depth.
Don’t Miss: A Saturday stroll through the Dane County Farmers’ Market, biking the Lake Loop, live music at the Memorial Union Terrace and lunch at Graze on the Capitol Square.
Where to Stay: The Madison Concourse Hotel & Governor’s Club — centrally located with high-touch service and views of the Capitol.
Fun Fact: Madison is home to the largest producer-only farmers market in the country, drawing vendors from all over Wisconsin.
OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center hosts The Magic Pride Festival on August 18 at Warner Park. It’s one of the region’s most grassroots-focused events, and queer culture thrives in everyday venues like the Shamrock Bar and Café Coda.
Getting There: A four-hour drive from the Twin Cities makes this an easy weekend road trip.
St. Louis, Mo.
In the summer, St. Louis shows off. The Gateway Arch glints against blue skies, neighborhoods spill onto sidewalks with live jazz and cold drinks, and Forest Park feels like the city’s shared backyard. It’s a city where you can mix museums and barbecue, rooftop cocktails and baseball games, all within the same zip code. The cultural offerings are as deep as the food scene, and both shine in the warmer months.
Don’t Miss: Catching a CITY SC soccer match, touring the Saint Louis Art Museum’s “Roaring” exhibit, visiting the Missouri History Museum and eating ribs or brisket at Salt + Smoke in Ballpark Village or trying bold flavors and street-style tacos at Session Taco in Soulard.
Where to Stay: Angad Arts Hotel — colorful, design-forward and steps from nightlife in the Grand Center Arts District.
Fun Fact: The Gateway Arch is the tallest man-made monument in the
U.S., standing at 630 feet.
Pride St. Louis is June 29-30, centered downtown with a large-scale parade, vendor fair and concerts. LGBTQ+ life in St. Louis is anchored in The Grove district, where bars, drag brunches and performance venues thrive year-round.
Getting There: A quick 90-minute flight or an eight-hour drive from MSP.
Cheyenne, Wyo.
Cheyenne has a way of surprising people. It has all the hallmarks of a Western hub — the rodeo, the boots, the trains — but also plenty of art, music and indie business. Come summer, the streets fill with murals and live music, the depot plaza hosts food truck rallies and the vibe leans relaxed but rooted. Cheyenne offers a slice of history and a lot of sky — and it’s easy to settle in.
Don’t Miss: Frontier Days, the world’s largest outdoor rodeo, brings parades, concerts and championship bull riding to town every July. Also, check out the Depot Plaza for food trucks and music, or catch a Hell on Wheels rodeo event if you’re visiting earlier in the season.
Where to Stay: Nagle Warren Mansion — a restored 1888 Western estate with Victorian charm, adult-friendly elegance and a storied past.
Fun Fact: Cheyenne’s Boot Trail features 8-foot-tall cowboy boots painted by local artists, with some including LGBTQ+ themes and pride flags.
Pride Cheyenne is set for June 21 with a street fair, vendors and music downtown. Rendezvous, a five-day queer summer campout in Medicine Bow National Forest, returns in August and draws people from all across the region.
Getting There: Fly into Denver and drive 90 minutes north — or plan a scenic 10-hour road trip from the Twin Cities.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need to chase crowds to experience something meaningful this summer. Whether you’re admiring city views from the top of the Gateway Arch, sipping wine at a local Spokane vineyard or sharing laughs over beers in Kendall Yards, chatting with locals at Madison’s lakeside terrace or watching the sun dip behind the rodeo arena in Cheyenne, the real draw is how these destinations make you feel. For LGBTQ+ travelers — and anyone who values inclusion and authenticity — these spots offer a refreshing sense of ease. They’re fun, they’re welcoming and they’re close enough to make your next great trip easy to say yes to.
Pack light. Leave space for curiosity. And don’t underestimate how good a smaller city can be when summer shows up in full.
My Expert Travel Advice? Live — and Let Live
As a nomad who regularly updates an experience-based Instagram account, I see a lot of algorithmic memes, reels and comments about travel.
From articles on how to keep your money safe from pickpockets to video tips on scoring the cheapest airfare to user anecdotes on hidden gems in some of the wildest places on the planet, there’s no shortage of adventure-forward content.
There’s an interesting underbelly to this content, however, where keyboard warriors express their first-world privilege of shaming other travelers for traveling like tourists.
American-on-American bullying, at its finest — because we’re a nation of never-ending micro-aggressions. It be your own people, as somebody once wisely observed.
Recently, I ran across a social-media post that put down picky eaters traveling to foreign countries. The caption, under a video of Americans in a fast-food restaurant, asked, “What kind of people travel abroad to eat at McDonald’s?”
It’s me. I’m that kind of people.
I don’t strictly eat at fast-food restaurants when I’m traveling abroad — I support local establishments — but I also have a limited palate and plenty of self-imposed dietary restrictions.
I was in Tokyo, and I don’t like fish. There’s a lot of fish in Tokyo. So, I shopped at the supermarket for food for my mini-fridge, I dined at steakhouses (find the one on my Instagram for a hot tip on the butteriest, most mouth-wateringist Wagyu you’ll ever put between your lips), and, if I was out pounding the urban pavement all day, I popped into McDonald’s for lunch.
In my own defense, I don’t eat McDonald’s at home often.
Photos courtesy of Michael Knipp (Mikey Rox)
That says nothing about the quality of the food, but rather that I’m still traumatized by pandemic fast-food practices where I had to order through an app but couldn’t pick it up because my van, a Ram ProMaster 2500, wouldn’t fit through the drive-thru.
I was told at a Wendy’s during peak COVID, while standing at its front door pleading for attention from the aloof workers inside, that I had to go around the building and stand in the drive-thru to pick up my order, with vehicles in front of me — and likely vehicles behind me eventually — so I could look like a lunatic.
What would I do when I got there — lower my head in embarrassment? Apologize silently to the family in front of me — and the one over my shoulder — for being the first weirdo they encounter today? Pop in my AirPods and sporadically shuffle forward every time a stoner drives away with a sack full of Dave’s Singles?
My $5 Biggie Bag was not worth that humiliation.
I arrived at a Starbucks to pick up my drink, which I could see sitting on the counter as I approached the front door, but I couldn’t get to it because the door was locked.
There I am again, banging on the vault to all the riches at the U.S. Mint, hoping that some 17-year-old with a broccoli top would have pity on me.
When they finally noticed me, I did my best sign-language impression of a customer who ordered a hot chocolate but who also drives a Ram ProMaster 2500 that can’t fit through the prohibitive drive-thru. After a few minutes, they realized I was someone who had taken their medication that morning, and they brought my venti to the door and beamed it through the crack so they wouldn’t catch my hypothetical cooties.
I feel differently about foreign McDonald’s, specifically.
I love the instant familiarity in a place where everything that surrounds me is new. I love looking at interesting menu items that we don’t have at home. And I love ordering a McChicken (yes, I’m a chicken-tenders-everywhere-I-go guy) when I want protein without emptying my pockets.
For some reason, that offends people — and that idea interests me.
The idea that someone is privileged enough to travel the globe, experience the wonders of distant worlds, participate in unique cultures and customs, and they’re annoyed that not everybody wants to eat tiger balls and monkey paws?
That sentiment speaks to a broader offense, I think: We’ve largely forgotten why we’re traveling.
A high-school buddy asked me on Facebook, after a new series of travel photos I posted, why I didn’t start a YouTube page dedicated to van life when I started it five years ago. He suggested that it probably wasn’t too late, as if I’d miss an opportunity if I didn’t seize it.
But it was never about missing that proverbial boat — because I consciously chose not to get on it.
When I started planning my van-life adventure in 2018, I had a successful media career in Manhattan, and all the material things that came with it, but I was burnt out, and I needed a change. So, I sold my real estate, bought the Ram and hit the road. I only intended to explore the country for a year before settling back down, but that’s somehow morphed into a half-decade in the wild, and I have another couple years planned.
From the onset, I decided this experience was all or nothing, and a detractor from that would be to turn this into a content-fest. I have an Instagram, and I enjoy updating it, but it’s more about showing off dope ’fits and chronicling this adventure for myself so I have something to look back on fondly when I’m old.
Thus, no YouTube content then, no YouTube content now.
Regardless of my willingness to do it, that space didn’t need another voice pretending that this lifestyle is a dream. It’s a lot of things — a lot of things for which I’m grateful — but easy it isn’t, and I’ve deduced that much of the rosecolored, self-edited, social-media nomad content is glorified BS.
Permit me to explain something else: Before van life, I was feral. I spent four years snorting coke inside a Virginia fraternity house before moving to downtown Baltimore to steal alcohol from neighborhood bars before running the streets of New York City for 10 years, where, in my neighborhood of Harlem, the residents affectionately called me White Mike.
The point of that is that I’ve lived, in my own little way — but, admittedly, not always in the best or even healthiest way.
It’s only dawned on me recently — a debt that’s probably owed to labformulated edibles from central Florida — that I enjoy living. I was sick and sad for so long, inundated from all sides all the time, that I completely forgot who I am and what I’m here for.
That’s not to sound grandiose, either. Quite the opposite. It’s just to say that I think I finally get what they mean by “We’re here for a good time, not a long time.”
Those things I thought were most important in the past — the material ones — have become the least important part of my life.
The anger that’s had a stronghold on my heart since I can remember has loosened its grip.
My creativity is returning, and I’m starting to forgive people for however I think they’ve wronged me, but, more importantly, I’m starting to forgive myself for how I’ve wronged them.
That forgiveness hasn’t come without apologies, either. In a move that surprises even myself, I’ve reached out to individuals to formally apologize for my past behavior, and I plan to continue that.
These years of solo travel have afforded that growth, and a full-time, nomadic life on the road also has changed my perspective on travel.
I don’t travel to show off or to pretend that I’m cultured — although I have been guilty of that in the past. Instead — now that I’m comfortable with who I am — I travel to see stunning sights with my own eyes, meet interesting people, and elevate my understanding of the world and my place in it.
That’s the experience that appeals to me, and that’s what I want out of this life experience as well. Furthermore, those epiphanies have only come from dedicating myself to a purposeful life of open-minded exploration — without worrying about what other people are doing with theirs.
People make a big deal because some travelers only want to hit tourist traps or grab a Big Mac at McDonald’s on their vacations. So what. That’s what they’ve deemed the best experience for them, so who should argue?
Living — and letting people live in whatever way brings them joy and peace and happiness — is all any of us should strive for in these United States that are consistently divided; among people who are increasingly negative and dissatisfied, especially online (both the cause and the effect); and in a world that often seems hopeless.
Travel, for whatever reason we’re doing it, helps us forget about those soul-crushing constants, however briefly, and in best-case scenarios, sometimes restores our faith in ourselves and each other.
At the end of the day, I’d like fries with that.
Mikey Rox is an award-winning freelance journalist whose passion for travel has taken him to all 50 states, 17 countries, and a couple drive-thrus he couldn’t get into. Follow his continuing adventures on Instagram @mikeyroxtravels.
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BY CARLA WALDEMAR
St. Pierre Comes Marching In
As they said in royal France, “The king is dead. Long live the [new] king!” Translate that to our city’s North Loop restaurant scene and you get “Snack Bar is closed, but, hurrah, St. Pierre Seafood & Steaks has opened.”
It came off a bit easier than a 10-day turn-around in March sounds because the cozy front of the house remains untouched — as well it should with its deep, curvy, assignation-worthy booths already in place, facing a row of prime-seating bar stools from which to spy the action in the kitchen. And the proprietors remain in place, too: Exec chef Isaac Becker manning the menu and his partner in life and business, Nancy St. Pierre, serving as hospitality doyenne.
There she is — teamed with Becker as the dining scene’s power couple of 112 Eatery and Bar La Grassa and now heralded in her own right — garbed, tonight, in jeans and a cozy sweater, (it’s snowing outside) leading guests to their seats. And, thanks to the new concept and its delivery, those seats — a former afterthought in the Loop’s dining scene — now are in demand (as is the valet, for these days foodies are driving in from remote suburbs for the experience).
To toast the turn-around, I ordered my standby cocktail, an Old Fashioned, for the usual taste test (based on Knob Creek here, and fine). I also sneaked a sip of my companion’s Pear Sonata — an easy-to-like combo of brandy sweetened a bit with Benedictine. What I should have done (and you’d be wise to) is proceed farther down the drinks list to the Gin Parade section, wherein one may create a personal pairing from the lengthy list of gins with house-made tonics and juices. Beer lovers, not to worry: five locals on tap. Wines BTG $10-20, too.
Roasted Halibut in Zarzuela. Photos by Mike Hnida
The menu’s Starter list reads, actually, like a trio of list-lets: seafood’s carpaccio, tartare and oysters; salad-y, veggie first courses; plus, side dishes to accent the mains ($11-23). I chose the foie gras toast with escargot because, well, why not? Talk about a gilded lily! Out came a crusty, inch-thick slice of toasted rustic bread spread lightly with the rich foie mousse, upon which rested a quartet of fat, oh-sosucculent, garlic-forward snails. Who else is serving snails these days? Not many. Off to a good start.
Next, from the pasta-and-more section of starters, we pounced on an order of pierogi, exceedingly plump with a savory puree of walnuts boldly scented with dill. Next time, from the same globe-trotting list: Germanic schupfnudeln in gorgonzola cream, cream-puffy gougères or sour silk handkerchiefs, Grilled Salmon with Lemon Pesto, Sour Silk Handkerchiefs, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.
whatever they may be. Our server recommended the crab-and-seabean salad, so that’s probably worth a thought as well. Or … oh, stop! We’ve yet to decide on a main course.
The list of steaks (prime Niman Ranch beef) segues from a 7-oz. hanger ($30) to a 6-oz. filet ($75). Tempting. But we were here for the seafood ($19-38). That section leads off with garlic-fried octopus, coconut curry mussels, grilled shrimp with black mayo and scallops with black rice. Read on and you’ll find roasted halibut in zarzuela, salmon with lemon pesto, barramundi in crazy water and more, down to the lobster cutlet with hearts of palm for those not of the faint-of-price-tag persuasion ($38).
Our order of halibut brought us a fillet that delivered on its promise: super-fresh, firm, meaty and mild in flavor. We ate it naked, but one can also procure sides such as fried eggplant with honey (if you care to spend $18 on veggies), spicy greens, roasted broccolini or mashed potatoes ($12 up).
Instead, this time we, for once, saved room for dessert ($15). Well-restrained diners may choose from two tempting sorbets. Those of our persuasion will succumb to the thought of ending the meal with a doughnut. It’s of the fluffy, raised variety, here, gently crisped with sugar spangling its exterior, leading to a hidden cream brulee filling. Split the guilt by sharing. Or dare the carrot or coconut cake — why not? (Well, you know why, but don’t listen.)
Hurrah, Mme. St. Pierre, for a lovely evening at a sweet new dining option named in your honor. Long live the queen!
St. Pierre Steak and Seafood Closed Sun/Mon.
800 Washington Ave. N., Minneapolis (612) 383-2848 www.stpierrerestaurant.com
‘On the Dot’ – During TC Pride 2025 Miss Richfield 1981 Remembers That There’s No Place Like Home
What most makes her unique in a field of performers trying to be the uniquest isn’t her makeup, which from foundation to contouring to eyeshadow to lipstick to eyeliner might most politely be described as “overdone;” it’s not her costumes, just as overdone, ranging from a Valentine heart to an American flag to a Christmas tree, each one crowned by thick-rimmed glasses and a thick-rimmed wig and lipsticked lips that are somehow simultaneously shouting and smiling.
No, what makes Miss Richfield 1981 unique is the relationship, the rapport, she shares with her live audiences. Like a doctor attending a patient, she asks and listens and reacts. And then the reaction reaps a re-reaction, as dependable and as reflexive as an involuntary cartoon kick wrought by a pointy rubber hammer hitting home just below the kneecap.
The reaction is laughter.
And the audiences generating that laughter, the audiences are larger and rangier than ever.
Miss Richfield 1981, as befits her Midwestern roots, started out humbly. Russell King, the Clark Kent to Miss Richfield’s super-doer, appeared in a friend’s basement, spicing up a thoroughly unspicy Miss America TV viewing party … which led to more formal emceeing assignments.
“I started working with this fabulous community during the AIDS crisis in 1995, as I worked with the Minnesota AIDS Project,” Miz R remembers. “The disease had been around since the early ‘80s, but sadly, in the 1990s it was still claiming many lives and threatening our community with discrimination and hardship, as it can still do today.”
The laughter produced during that first outing wasn’t a luxury; it was a necessity.
Laments Miss Richfield, “They were dark days, but so very many, many of us worked tirelessly to bring some light and joy as we worked to raise funds to help fight the disease and educational efforts to bring awareness and understanding about AIDS.”
These public services led to more commercial gigs around the City of Lakes, including the joining of a full troupe of “female impersonators” from whom she picked up tips and tricks of the trade. Here she developed her signature combination of song, dance, don’t-go-there comedy … and audience participation, audience participation above all else. From venue to venue, she carefully gauged the crowd’s reaction as its
members transformed over the years from rubbernecked gawkers to zealous fans.
These efforts eventually brought Miss Richfield to Minneapolis’s Illusion Theater, forging a business relationship that endures to this day.
Says Miz R, “Annually, I’ve done a holiday show there since 1999 with my fabulous ‘penis,’ which is also pronounced ‘pianist,’ Todd Price.”
The arc of her career continued to bend upward.
Recalls Miss Richfield 1981, “I emceed a cabaret for the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association that was being hosted in the Twin Cities.”
This led to a gig — a career, really — with Atlantis Events on cruise ships and resorts. This drag queen’s bingo card was nearly full.
“Finally, my travels took me to Provincetown, Mass.,” she says. “For the last 22 years, I’ve spent four months of every year on the tip of Old Cape Cod performing 60 shows each summer. Truly, that is what’s made my artistic life possible.”
Things got to a point where Miss Richfield had to present a new show annually, bringing that stylized entertainment from place to place to place.
“It’s a haul to create new ideas for each year, but it’s necessary with a residency in P-town,” she observes. “And it certainly keeps the work interesting to sing new songs and have new outfits and videos each year. Once I get a new one under my belt, I’m always grateful for the push to do it!”
The year 2025 is, naturally, no exception.
“I am celebrating our new medicated world with my show ‘There’s A Pill for That,’” she announces. “I’m asking people, ‘Do you have aches and pains? Maybe you’re nervous? Or you live in Florida?’ Whatever your condition, ‘There’s a Pill for That!’ So, whether you’re afflicted, addicted or conflicted, I’ll find just the right dose for you!”
There is a halfway serious subtext to this comedic work that’s part satire and part social commentary.
“Of course, it’s a riff on all the prescription pharmaceutical ads that constantly bombard us,” Miss Richfield reveals. “I think it’s fun and not political! I feel like we’re all weary of politics and unfortunately, that has gone far beyond being funny.”
Much of Miss Richfield’s funny was honed during Twin Cities Pride festivals over the years.
“So many of the very generous local performers, along with the Twin Cities LGBTQ+ audiences, have been so good to me along the way,” she says.
More than a few laughs were of the laugh-at variety, as opposed to the laugh-with type.
“Some of those memories are painful,” Miz R notes. “Like one of my first public performances [was] when St. Paul was trying to do their own Pride, which was fun … but their headliner was late, and I was stuck on stage trying to stretch
Continued on page 64
On a pier in Hawaii while working on an Atlantis Events cruise. Citizen of the Year in Richfield with my mom, Barb King, who passed away Jan 29, 2020. Photos by Karl Reichert
for 45 minutes! Let’s just say I learned that I needed more material and a better plan for such occasions!”
Miss Richfield 1981 doesn’t want to be the only queen generating such material.
“I hope younger and newer performers get the same opportunities to make mistakes and learn because that’s often the only way to learn in this business — just do it!” she encourages.
The OG has learned about herself along the way to divadom, but she’s also learned about the big, blue marble shared by the fabulous and unfabulous alike.
“Now I get to travel to many locations around the country and in some cases, the world!” she exclaims. “I annually do a weekend in NYC, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Springs and other fun places. And my international travel is almost exclusively on Atlantis Events since 1999.”
But Miss Richfield hasn’t forgotten where it all started.
“These beautiful Twin Cities are the reason I have a career,” she happily, readily admits. “I couldn’t have done any of it without having an audience here first!”
All of that personal history will be funneled into this year’s show, “There’s a Pill For That!” In coming months, her heart still left in her hometown, Miss Richfield 1981 will bring that challenging material to the world … but in the end, this local-girl-madegood will simply be re-proving to the world what she proved in that suburban basement all those years ago, what she’s proved on every stage she’s ever graced: laughter is the best medicine.
Miss Richfield 1981 www.missrichfield.com
Artwork by Carl Horosz
PROUDLY WOMAN OF COLOR & FAMILY OWNED
El Patio El Patio Y BAR
Broadway Star Britney Coleman Joins the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus for Pride Concert 2025
Coleman, known for her roles in the first national tours of “Company” (Bobbie) and “Beetlejuice” (Barbara Maitland), will be singing approximately 10 songs for the Pride concert in the Twin Cities.
Calling all Broadway lovers!
The Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus will be celebrating Pride this year at Ordway Concert Hall on Saturday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 22, at 2:30 p.m.
The show, which is titled “Leading Ladies: Divas of Broadway,” will include songs for all generations to enjoy, while highlighting the female legends of the Broadway stage throughout the decades.
Broadway actress Britney Coleman has been selected once again as the guest artist for this concert and will be performing with the ensemble for several numbers, including a few solo songs.
Coleman’s first experience on stage with TCGMC was at the Pride concert in 2022. Gerald Gurss, artistic director of TCGMC, was so blown away by Coleman’s professionalism and talent that he had to ask her back for this year’s very fitting theme.
“One of the beautiful things about hiring an artist like Britney is that they’re not just an artist, they are a professional and they are talented and they are responsible,” Gurss gushes. “Britney is somebody who you could never hear enough of, she’s so good.”
The multigenerational show is comprised of music from the early days of the infamous theater-writing team Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammer-
Photo courtesy of Dennis Whipple
stein, legendary performer Julie Andrews and modern-day icons such as Joy Woods. With the diversity of the program, all audience members are sure to hear a song they know and love.
“Let’s be honest … there’s an undeniable tether between queer culture and Broadway,” Gurss says.
He wants this show to celebrate that connection and put a smile on the faces of every audience member who purchases a ticket and supports them.
Unlike their 2022 show, which was heavily focused on relaying a deeper message to their audience about social justice-related issues, Gurss wants this concert to be purely about bringing joy to the queer community by presenting them with a performance involving a genre of music they resonate with.
“This concert is designed for people to just come and enjoy being themselves in a place with people who are like them and people who are allies for them,” Gurss explains. “Just to have a wonderful escape from the things that they have to see and feel the repercussions of during their daily lives.”
The chorus and Coleman have already been rehearsing the numbers for this show for a while now. Coleman, who is based in New York City, treats the rehearsal process for this performance like she would for any of her Broadway shows.
“I’m starting work already and we’re more than a month out to make sure that [the program] is up and performance ready,” Coleman says. “So that means working with the material with a coach and a voice teacher.”
Coleman will likely be flying into the Twin Cities one day before the show for in-person rehearsal time with the ensemble. The chorus and Coleman should then be able to smoothly combine their rehearsed parts with little to no issues.
While Pride is a wonderful and emotional time of celebration for the LGBTQ+ community, it can also feel tiring for TCGMC singers. Gurss be-
lieves this is due in part to the abundance of performance requests the choir receives during June from both local and national companies. The Pride concert is more so a way to bring joy to their audience members rather than to themselves.
“In some ways, when you’re in the arts, you have a career of servitude. You’re there to provide these emotional experiences and catharsis for all the different human emotions,” Gurss explains.
The level of professionalism this chorus upholds makes it practically impossible for their audiences to recognize when the singers feel fatigued or sluggish.
Coleman and Gurss believe that this very skill is what sets professional and professional-adjacent performers apart from the rest: their ability to maintain high energy levels for extended periods of time, when others may have trouble masking that exhaustion.
Don’t get it twisted, the chorus still adores preparing these performances for listeners and feels just as thrilled as the next Broadway fan to be singing next to Coleman. The desire from the audience to watch an exceptional performance always replenishes the ensemble’s excitement.
Gurss feels that it’s crucial for TCGMC to put on great performances for their audiences because each person who shows up paid to be there and wants a good and meaningful performance.
“I’m never okay settling for mediocrity. I always want them to leave the stage feeling like they have done the best possible job that they can do,” he shares.
To buy tickets to the TCGMC Pride concert or to donate to the organization, visit tcgmc.org.
To stay updated with Britney Coleman, follow her on Instagram @britneycoleman.
Twin Cities!
‘Art + Art = Art’: The Walker Art Center Presents Representation Through Combination
Art is, at its core, about combination: a painter combines red pigment with yellow pigment and creates the color that gives poets nightmares; he combines pigment with canvas to create images that give art students headaches; and he combines talent with skill to create re-workings that give himself conniption fits.
One artist most associated with combination art — his most famous pieces are called “combines” — is Robert Rauschenberg. Herr Rauschenberg’s résumé is the combination of painting, sculpting, photography, printmaking, papermaking and — sure, why not? — performance. Working in
so many disciplines makes art-combining nearly a foregone conclusion.
His work has been alternately described as “Neo-Dadist” and “Abstract Expressionism” … which is the experts’ way of saying, “We have no idea what to call this guy’s stuff, but it’s definitely art.”
Rauschenberg himself stated that “Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. I try to act in that gap between the two.”
He died in 2008, aged 82 years. But his work, his one-piece-of-this-andone-part-of-that work, lives on.
Perhaps his most memorable, his most insistent, his most immortal combination will be visiting Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center in the very near future. “Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg: Glacial Decoy” is … well, it’s a combination — it’s lots of things, all at the same time.
Photo courtesy of BigStock/faina
Reach out to a Friend in real estate
“Glacial Decoy” is, as described on the Walker’s website, an “iconic dancework,” one that, like many improbable combinations, might seem a little jarring upon first experiencing it. This may be because, in this instance, Rauschenberg is not just combining one medium with another; he’s combining his art with that of another artist, as well.
The choreography of “Glacial Decoy” was provided by the equally iconic late Trisha Brown, whose body of work is remembered by experts as “post-modern dancing.”
That’s an especially effective description when one realizes that, as the Walker website puts it, “‘Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg: Glacial Decoy’ pays homage to the original 1979 dance, which debuted at the Walker,” commingling the past with the present.
The most notable element of “Glacial Decoy” is composed of four dancers, moving across the proscenium like the confused ghosts of acrobats. Second most notable is the performance’s sound, composed wholly of the claps and stomps of the dancers whose movements are free of music … because the stage is free of music, a combination through attrition.
The white, amorphous costumes worn by the dancers, which contribute to the surreality of the whole experience, were designed by Rauschenberg.
Less surreally, Rauschenberg designed the set where the dancers (more or less) soundlessly ply their trade.
The most notable part of this set is composed of four tall canvases, each of which features the projection of a black-and-white photograph taken by Rauschenberg specifically for this challenging exhibit: one screen shows a close-up of a truck tire, waiting to be called to work; this dissolves into the long shot image of four horses grazing behind a fence; these turn into a nondescript building that turns into a nondescript woods that turns into a nondescript lawn with three adjacent screens enduring similarly-constant, similarly-mundane transformations.
All of this is intended as mere background for the dancers who change their body positions on a similar scale, a forward step becoming a backward step, becoming a twirl, becoming an exit, becoming an entrance.
As the website puts it, “Anchoring both the dance and this exhibition is a projection of the 159 unique photographs Rauschenberg created to accompany Brown’s choreography.”
In other words, by designing both the costumes and the set, Rauschenberg is combining the surreal with the real.
Reviving “Glacial Decoy” is part of a larger celebration that recognizes Rauschenberg’s 100th birthday. Perhaps most relevant to the Twin Cities’ 2025 celebration of Pride, Robert Rauschenberg was a kind of way-paver for the Pop Art movement, whose movers, in addition to expanding creative boundaries, also resisted and defied social boundaries.
In those days when the love that dare not speak its name really didn’t speak its name, Robert Rauschenberg was as openly gay as anyone could be. He was in an unapologetic relationship with contemporary painter Jasper Johns, and his work would frequently include and display gay themes — sometimes coded, often shouted.
Even the name of the work, “Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg: Glacial Decoy,”combines two combinations — that of artists and arts … but thanks to the Walker Art Center re-presenting the work to the Twin Cities, the most vital combination is enabled — that of art and audience.
Workshop for Independent Publishing Builds Community and Continuity
Print media has long been a powerful tool in the LGBTQ+ community — an accessible, tactile means of transcending time and space to share art, poetry, politics and resources. Independent publishing serves as a tangible record of queer existence, just like the magazine you’re reading right now. While digital media may dominate, print is far from obsolete. It remains a vital force for connection, resistance and creativity.
The Workshop for Independent Publishing, or WIP, is a community print shop and hub for local creatives, offering low-cost printing. WIP offers access to photocopiers, risograph machines and educational programming to support the creation of queer print media and homegrown publications. But beyond equipment, WIP offers something deeper: continuity in a long-standing tradition of queer and trans self-publishing.
WIP’s beginnings are humble. The project grew out of the living room of India Johnson and Aiden Bettine, zinesters and co-founders of Late Night Copies Press, a Minneapolis-based micro press focused on queer and trans publishing. After earning graduate degrees in Iowa City — Johnson in Book Arts and Technologies (MSA) and Bettine in library and ar-
Photos by Aspen Rush
UPCOMINGCONCERTS
SØNDERGÅRD CONDUCTS
RACHMANINOFF
THU JUN 12 11AM
FRI JUN 13 8PM
SAT JUN 14 7PM
Thomas Søndergård, conductor Bruce Liu, piano
Chopin Competition winner Bruce Liu will play Sergei Prokofiev’s dazzling Piano Concerto No. 3. The concert concludes with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s rhythmic Symphonic Dances.
JUNETEENTH AT ORCHESTRA HALL
THU JUN 19 7PM
Jonathan Taylor Rush, conductor Wordsmith, soloist
John Holiday, countertenor
At Orchestra Hall this Juneteenth, hear stirring pieces written and performed by Black artists alongside the Minnesota Orchestra. Before the concert, explore a vibrant curated vendor space in the lobby. Support local Black entrepreneurs and experience the powerful intersection of music, culture and community.
Christoph Koestlin; Søndergård: Chris McDuffie; Holiday: Shervin Lainez.
The 2024–25 Classical Season is presented by
N ORTHLAND V ISIONS
chival science (MLIS, Ph.D.) — the couple moved to Minneapolis and began to build community through sharing the tools they had gathered through their press.
Bettine, now the curator of the Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies at the University of Minnesota, has dedicated his career to preserving and documenting queer archives. Johnson is a full-time teaching artist. Together, they turned their second-floor South Minneapolis apartment into a makeshift print studio, their dining room cramped with bulky photocopiers.
“We started sharing access to our photocopiers and our workspace,” Bettine recalls. “Which was really just our dining room turned print shop.”
Initially, they launched “Open Copy” events — casual drop-in Saturdays where people could come to make zines, flyers and creative prints affordably. The response was immediate and overwhelming. By 2024, they were producing more than 16,000 copies a month from their home.
That demand catalyzed something bigger. In early 2025, Bettine and Johnson opened WIP as an official storefront, moving operations into a shared space inside Yarborough Printshop. Though the storefront has only been open for a few months, it has already become a cornerstone for queer and trans creatives in the Twin Cities.
The new space has allowed WIP to grow: more hours, more equipment and more skill sharing, staffed by a dedicated team of 15 volunteer shopkeepers. It’s a place where access meets intention.
WIP is also in the process of building its own zine library. WIP offers two free copies of each work — one for the archive and one for the public collection. In just three months, the library has collected over fifty zines, preserving and showcasing the vibrancy of queer print culture in real time.
In collaboration with the Tretter Collection and Astringent Press, Late Night Copies runs the Midwest Queer and Trans Zine Fest. Johnson and Bettine are pushing regional representation to the forefront. The festival features an equal split between Twin Cities-based zines
and those from across the greater Midwest.
“We want to pair the legacy of Midwestern print with the contemporary landscape of Midwestern print culture,” Bettine says.
Late Night Copies travels nationwide to table at zine fests, challenging the myth that queer and trans culture only exists on the coasts. Their work highlights the Midwest as a thriving, vibrant hub of queer creativity and builds bridges between regional creators.
Ultimately, their goal is to create a space that celebrates and sustains queer and trans creatives.
“We want to foster a community that enables people to collect queer print, have another distribution point and afford encouragement,” Bettine says. “There are a lot of people who make zines because they went to a zine fest and they found a zine that inspires them. We all inspire each other.”
That being said, WIP is not exclusively for zines and creative projects.
“Fliers, prints, mailers, we got you!” Bettine insists.
The Workshop for Independent Publishing is more than a print shop — it’s a community-building project grounded in care, access and legacy. Through Late Night Copies and WIP, Bettine and Johnson are carrying forward a powerful publishing tradition, solidifying queer and trans history in print.
BY GREGG SHAPIRO
It’s been a long time — maybe 25 years since “Will & Grace” debuted — since there’s been so much excitement about a new, queer sitcom premiering. “Mid-Century Modern,” bowing on Hulu on March 28, is the creation of Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, the gay men who were also behind “Will & Grace.” Set in Palm Springs, Calif., following the death of one of their closest friends, three gay men gather to mourn. Swept up in the emotions of the moment, Bunny (Nathan Lane) suggests that Atlantabased flight attendant Jerry (Matt Bomer) and New York-based fashion editor Arthur (Nathan Lee Graham) move into the mid-century modern home he shares with his mother Sybil (the late Linda Lavin). Over the course of the first season’s 10 episodes, hilarity ensues. That is, except for the episode in which they address Sybil’s passing. The three male leads are all fabulous, and the ensemble cast, including Pamela Adlon as Bunny’s
‘Modern’ family: an interview with Max Mutchnick of ‘Mid-Century Modern’
sister Mindy, and the stellar line-up of guest stars, such as Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Vanessa Bayer, Richard Kind and Cheri Oteri, keep humor buzzing. Shortly before the premiere of “Mid-Century Modern,” Max generously made time for a Zoom interview.
Gregg Shapiro: I’d like to begin by saying it’s always a delight to speak to a fellow Emerson College alum. In ways would you say that Emerson impacted your professional and creative life?
Max Mutchnick: I think Emerson was the first place that reflected back to me that my voice, my thoughts were good, and they were worth listening to. I developed a confidence at Emerson that did not exist in my body and soul. It was a collection of a lot of things that took place in Boston, but I mean we can just put it all under the Emerson umbrella.
Before “Will & Grace,” you co-created the NBC sitcom “Boston Common,” which starred fellow Emerson alum An thony Clark. Is it important for you to maintain those kinds of alumni relationships?
Because Emersonians are such scrappy little monkeys and they end up being everywhere in the world, you can’t help but work with someone from Emerson at some point in your career. I’m certainly more inclined to engage with someone from Emerson once I learn that they went to my alma mater. For me, it has much more to do with history and loyalty. I don’t think of myself as one of those guys that says, “Loyalty means a lot to me. I’m someone that really leans into history.” It’s just what my life and career turned out to be. The longer I worked with people and the more often I worked with them, the safer that I felt, which means that I was more creative and that’s the name of the game. I’ve got to be as comfortable as possible so I can be as creative as possible. If that means that a person from Emerson is in the room, so be it. [Costume designer] Lori Eskowitz would be the Emerson version. And then [writer and actor] Dan Bucatinsky would be another version. When I’m around them for a long time, that’s when the best stuff comes.
Relationships are important. On that subject, your new Hulu sitcom “Mid-Century Modern” is about the longstanding friendship between three friends, Bunny (Nathan Lane), Jerry (Matt Bomer) and Arthur (Nathan Lee Graham). Do you have a friendship like the one shared by these three men?
I’m absolutely engaged in a real version of what we’re projecting on the show. I have that in my life. I cannot say that I’m Jerry in any way, but the one thing that we do have in common is that in my group, I’m the young one. But I think that that’s very common in these families that we create. There’s usually a young one. Our culture is built on learning from our elders. I didn’t have a father growing up, so maybe that made me that much more inclined to seek out older, wiser, funnier, meaner friends. I mean the reason why you’re looking at a mouthful of straight, white teeth is because one of those old b—-es sat across from me about 25 years ago at a diner and said, “Girl, your teeth are a di saster, and you need to get that fixed immediately.” What did I know? I was just a kid from Chicago with two nickels in my pocket. But I found three nickels, and I went and had new teeth put in my head. But that came from one of my dearest in the group.
Do you think that calling “Mid-Century Modern” a gay “Golden Girls” is a fair description?
No. I think the gay “Golden Girls” was really just used as a tool to pitch the show quickly. We have an expression in town, which is “give me the elevator pitch,” because nobody has an attention span. The fast est way you can tell someone what David (Kohan) and I wanted to write, was to say “It’s gay Golden Girls.” When you say that to some body, then they say, “OK, sit down now, tell me more.” We did that and then we started to dive into the show and realized pretty quickly that it’s not the gay “Golden Girls.” No disrespect to the “Golden Girls.” It’s a masterpiece.
“Mid-Century Modern” is set in Palm Springs. I’m based in Fort Lauderdale, a few blocks south of Wilton Manors, and I was wondering if that gay enclave was ever in consideration for the setting, or was it always going to be in Palm Springs?
You just asked a really incredible question! Because, during CO VID, Matt Bomer and I used to walk, because we live close by. We had a little walking group of a few gay gentlemen. On one of those walks, Matt proposed a comedy set in Wilton Manors. He said it would be
great to title the show “Wilton Manors.” I will tell you that in the building blocks of what got us to “Mid-Century Modern,” Wilton Manors, and that suggestion from Matt Bomer on our COVID walks, was part of it.
Is Sybil, played by the late Linda Lavin, modeled after a mother you know?
Rhea Kohan [mother of David and Jenji]. When we met with Linda for the first time over Zoom, when she was abroad, David and I explained to her that this was all based on Rhea Kohan. In fact, some of the lines that she [Sybil] speaks in the pilot are the words that Jenji Kohan spoke about her mother in her eulogy at the funeral because it really summed up what the character was all about. Yes, it’s very much based on someone.
The Donny Osmond jokes in the second episode of “Mid-Century Modern” reminded me of the Barry Manilow “Fanilows” on “Will & Grace.” Do you know if Donny is aware that he’s featured in the show?
I don’t. To tell you the truth, the “Fanilow” episode was written when I was not on the show. I was on a forced hiatus, thanks to Jeff Zucker. That was a show that I was not part of. We don’t really work that way. The Donny Osmond thing came more from Matt’s character being a Mormon, and also one of the writers. It’s very important to mention that the writing room at “Mid-Century Modern” is (made up of) wonderful and diverse and colorful incredible humans — one of them is an old, white, Irish guy named Don Roos who’s brilliant …
… he’s Dan Bucatinsky’s husband.
Right! Dan is also part of the writing room. But I believe it was Don who had a thing for Donny, and that’s where it comes from. I don’t know if Donny has any awareness. The only thing I care about when we turn in an episode like that is I just want to hear from legal that we’re approved.
“Mid-Century Modern” also includes opportunities for the singers in the cast. Linda Lavin sang the Jerome Kern/Ira Gershwin tune “Long Ago (And Far Away)” and Nathan Lane and the guys sang “He Had It Coming” from “Chicago.” Was it important to give them the chance to exercise those muscles?
I don’t think it was. I think it really is just the managers’ choice. David Kohan and I like that kind of stuff, so we write that kind of stuff. But by no means was there an edict to write that. We know what our cast is capable of, and we will absolutely exploit that if we’re lucky enough to have a second season. I have a funky relationship with the song “Long Ago (And Far Away).” It doesn’t float my boat, but everybody else loved it. We run a meritocracy, and the best idea will out. That’s how that song ended up being in the show. I far prefer the recording of Linda singing “I’ll Be Seeing You” over her montage in episode eight, “Here’s To You, Mrs. Schneiderman.” We were just lucky that Linda had recorded that. That recording was something that she had done and sent to somebody during COVID because she was held up in her apartment. That’s what motivated her to make that video and send it. That’s how we were able to use that audio.
Being on a streaming service such as Hulu allows for characters to say things they might not get away with on network TV, including a foreskin joke, as well as Sybil’s propensity for cursing.
And the third line in the show is about him looking like a “reluctant bottom.” I don’t think that’s something you’re going to see on ABC anytime soon. David and I liked the opportunity to open up the language of this show because it might possibly open the door to bringing people … I’m going to mix metaphors … into the tent that have never been there before. A generation that writes off a sitcom because that language and that type of comedy isn’t the way that they sound. One of the gifts of doing this show
on Hulu is that we get to write dialogue that sounds a little bit more like you and I sound. As always, we don’t want to do anything just to do it.
It didn’t feel that way.
It’s there when it’s right. [Laughs] I want to have a shirt made with Linda’s line, as her mother always used to say, “Time is a c—.”
“Mid-Century Modern” also utilizes a lot of Jewish humor. How important is it for you to include that at this time when there is a measurable rise in antisemitism?
I think it’s important, but I don’t think it’s the reason why we did it. We tried very hard to not write from a place of teaching or preaching. We really are just writing about the stuff that makes us laugh. One of the things that makes something better and something that you can invest in is if it’s more specific. We’re creating a character whose name is Bunny Schneiderman and his mother’s name is Sybil and they made their money in a family-run business, it gets Jewy, and we’re not going to shy away from it. But we’re definitely not going to address what’s going on in the world. That doesn’t mean I don’t find it very upsetting, but I’m writing always from the point of view of entertaining the largest number of people that I can every week.
“Mid-Century Modern” has a fantastic roster of guest stars including Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Vanessa Bayer, Billie Lourd, Cheri Oteri, Richard Kind, Rhea Perlman and Judd Hirsch. Are there plans to continue that in future seasons?
Yes. As I keep saying, if we’re so lucky that we get to continue, I don’t want to do “The Love Boat.” Those are fine comic actors, so I don’t think it feels like that. But if we get to keep going, what I want to do is broaden the world because that gives us more to write about. I want to start to introduce characters that are auxiliary to the individuals. I want to start to meet Arthur’s family so we can return to people. I want to introduce other neighbors and different types of gay men because we come in so many different flavors. I think that we should do that only because I’m sure it’s what your life is and it’s what my life is. I’ve got a lot of different types. So, yes, we will be doing more.
Finally, Linda Lavin passed away in December 2024, and in a later episode, the subject of her character Sybil’s passing is handled sensitively, including the humorous parts.
We knew we had a tall order. We suffered an incredible loss in the middle of making this comedy. One of the reasons why I think this show works is because we are surrounded by a lot of really talented people. Jim Burrows and Ryan Murphy, to name two. Ryan played a very big role in telling us that it was important that we address this, that we address it immediately. That we show the world and the show goes on. That wasn’t my instinct because I was so inside the grief of losing a friend, because she really was. It wasn’t like one of those showbizzy-type relationships. And this is who she was, by the way, to everybody at the show. It was the way that we decided to go. Let’s write this now. Let’s not put this at the end of the season. Let’s not satellite her in. Let’s not “Darren Stevens” the character, which is something we would never do. The other thing that Jim Burrows made very clear to us was the import of the comedy. You have to write something that starts exactly in the place that these shows start: a set comedy piece that takes place in the kitchen. Because for David and me, as writers, we said we just want to tell the truth. That’s what we want to do with this episode, and that’s the way that this will probably go best for us. The way that we’ve dealt with grief in our lives is with humor. That is the way that we framed writing this episode. We wanted it to be a chapter from our lives, and how we experience this loss and how we recover and move on.
Small Town, Big Gays: Your Friendly Queer Neighbors in Wisconsin
Podcasts are a hot commodity in the current age. With everyone jumping on the bandwagon, it’s hard to find one that truly feels unique and informative. “Small Town, Big Gays” is a Wisconsin-based podcast that covers queer life in a smaller town.
It was Nov. 15, 2024, when Travis Gorell and Chance Smith released the first episode of the “Small Town, Big Gays” podcast.
Smith, who grew up in New Lisbon, Wis., and later moved to Eau Claire, Wis., was working at a bar in town when he was introduced to Gorell through a mutual friend who asked Gorell, aka Khloe Wold, to start doing drag performances at the bar Smith worked at. It didn’t take long for the two to become friends shortly thereafter.
The STBG podcast, which is currently being recorded in Gorell’s living room in Eau Claire, covers a vast array of topics pertaining to the LGBTQ+ community; everything from queer hookup culture to politics is discussed on this platform and a new episode is released every Friday.
The candidness of the podcast provides listeners with an escape from reality for an hour at a time, where they have the opportunity to relate to or learn from two queer people navigating life in a smaller town.
“We can be your queer friends who are way out in Wisconsin and you just hear all of our shenanigans,” Smith says.
Their listenership contains several queer audience members and far more allies than they anticipated tuning in. They even have one fan in Nebraska who interacts with their YouTube channel immediately following the release of a new podcast episode, which streams across various social media platforms.
One recurring critique that Gorell and Smith receive regards their decision to categorize Eau Claire as a small town. To that, they simply say it’s all about perspective.
“In gay terms, it’s still a very small town,” Smith explains. “I consider any town that can’t sustain more than one gay bar to be a small town.”
They hope to expose their audience to new perspectives on queer lifestyles in smaller towns, with both of them having grown up or lived in small rural towns in Wisconsin nearly their whole lives. They feel it’s important to emphasize that the queer identity exists beyond the walls of urban environments.
“I think the good thing about the podcast for us is that it puts a face to a perspective for people that may not see or understand what queer life is, especially in smaller towns,” Gorell says.
Aside from being an Eau Claire-based drag queen, Gorell is an active
Photo courtesy of Chance Smith
community member who regularly participates in events with the Eau Claire LGBTQ+ community center. He and Smith have done drag story hours, queer youth events and bi-weekly drag bingo nights to create positive experiences and set good examples for others in their small town.
“I think a lot of queer people have this inherent urge to move to a bigger city to find more …” Gorell says. “You can go and find those experiences, or you can just create those experiences right in your community. Chance and I have really been working hard to create the things that we want to see happen.”
Smith and Gorell also wanted to respond to fears in their small-town queer community about the legal protection of their rights and freedoms.
“We are standing on the backs of people who fought greater odds and worse violence to get us to where we are now,” Smith says. “Just because we are seeing backlash to that at a national and international level doesn’t mean that we cower in a closet.”
So, on they went with their participation in queer events around town and the release of their weekly podcast episodes; discussing political updates, Grindr stories and their day-to-day lives.
“I think it’s important for queer people to raise their voices however they can and say, ‘We’re here, we’ve always been here and we always will be here,’” Smith says.
While the podcast is still relatively new, the feedback Gorell and Smith have received from their listeners has been uplifting and supportive. It encourages them to continue the hobby they love and hopefully make monetary gain from it in the future.
Smith, who has a background in videography, is responsible for all of the behind-the-scenes production tasks. This includes, but is not limited to, editing the audio and video footage for the weekly episodes, managing STBG’s social media profiles and operating his own multimedia production company, STRANGEHAVENS.
Gorell and Smith hope to eventually turn STBG into a larger operation, with a proper recording studio and upgraded equipment, but for now, they’re simply enjoying the creative experience and building a stronger community within their town.
The STBG podcast releases episodes every Friday and can be streamed on Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can follow them @stbgpod on TikTok and Instagram.
Photo courtesy of BigStock/dolgachov
BY GREGG SHAPIRO
Underdog Glorious: A Personal Remembrance of Jill Sobule (1959-2025)
I’ve always prided myself on being the kind of music consumer who purchased music on impulse. When I stumbled across “Things Here Are Different,” Jill Sobule’s 1990 MCA Records debut album on vinyl, in a favorite Chicago record store, I bought it without knowing anything about her. This was at a time when we didn’t have our phones in our pockets to search for information about the artist on the internet. The LP stayed in my collection until, as vinyl was falling out of fashion, I replaced it with a CD a few years later.
Early in my career as an entertainment journalist, I received a promo copy of Jill’s eponymous 1995 Atlantic Records album. That year, Atlantic Records was one of the labels at the forefront of signing and heavily promoting queer artists, including Melissa Ferrick and Extra Fancy, and its roster included the self-titled album by Jill. It was a smart move, as the single “I Kissed a Girl” became a hit on radio and its accompanying video (featuring Fabio!) was in heavy rotation on MTV (when they still played videos).
Unfortunately for Jill, she was a victim of record label missteps. When 1997’s wonderful “Happy Town” failed to repeat the success, Atlantic dumped her. That was Atlantic’s loss, because her next album, the superb “Pink Pearl,” contained “Heroes” and “Mexican Wrestler,” two of her most beloved songs. Sadly, Beyond Music, the label that released that album, ceased to exist after just a few years. To her credit, the savvy Jill had also started independently releasing music (2004’s “The Folk Years”). This was a smart move because her next major-label release, the brilliant “Underdog Victorious” on Artemis Records, met a similar fate when that label folded.
With her 2009 album “California Years,” Jill launched her own indie label, Pinko Records, on which she would release two more outstanding full-length discs, 2014 “Dottie’s Charms” (on which she collaborated with some of her favorite writers, including David Hadju, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter and Jonathan Lethem), and 2018’s stunning “Nostalgia Kills.” Jill’s cover of the late Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” on “Nostalgia Kills” was particularly poignant as she had toured with him as an opening act.
Jill was a road warrior, constantly on tour, and her live shows were something to behold. My first interview with Jill took place at the Double Door in Chicago in early August of 1995, when she was the opening act for legendary punk band X. She had thrown her back out the previous day and was diagnosed with a herniated disc. To be comfortable, she was lying down on a fabulousfifties sofa. “I feel like I’m at my shrink’s,” she said to me. “Do you want me to talk about my mother?”
That sense of humor, which permeated and enriched her music, was one of many reasons to love Jill. I was privileged to interview her for seven of her albums. Everything you would want to know about her was right there in her honest lyrics, in which she balanced her distinctive brand of humor with serious subject matter. Drawing on her life experiences in songs such as “Bitter,” “Underachiever,” “One of These Days,” “Freshman,” “Jetpack,” “Nothing To Prove,” “Forbidden Thoughts of Youth,” “Island of Lost Things,” “Where Do I Begin,” “Almost Great” and “Big Shoes,” made her songs as personal as they were universal, elicited genuine affection and concern from her devoted fans.
While she was a consummate songwriter, Jill also felt equally comfortable covering songs made famous by others, including “Just A Little Lovin’” (on the 2000 Dusty Springfield tribute album “Forever Dusty”) and “Stoned Soul Picnic” (from the 1997 Laura Nyro tribute album “Time and Love”). Jill also didn’t shy away from political subject matter in her music with “Resistance Song,” “Soldiers of Christ,”
Gregg Shapiro and Jill Sobule. Photos courtesy of Gregg Shapiro
“Attic,” “Heroes,” “Under the Disco Ball” and the incredible “America Back” as prime examples.
Here’s something else worth mentioning about Jill. She was known for her collaboration skills. As a songwriter, she maintained a multi-year creative partnership with Robin Eaton (“I Kissed a Girl” and many others), as well as Richard Barone, the gay frontman of the renowned band The Bongos. Jill’s history with Barone includes a performing together at a queer Octoberfest event in Chicago in 1996. Writer and comedian Julie Sweeney, of “SNL” and “Work in Progress” fame, was another Chicago collaborator
with Sobule (Sweeney lives in a Chicago suburb), where they frequently performed their delightful “The Jill and Julia Show.” John Doe, of the aforementioned band X, also collaborated with Jill in the studio (“Tomorrow Is Breaking” from “Nostalgia Kills”), as well as in live performances.
On a very personal note, in 2019, when I was in the process of arranging a reading at the fabulous NYC gay bookstore Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, I reached out to Jill and asked her if she would like to be on the bill with me. We alternated performing; I would read a couple of poems, and Jill would sing a couple of songs. She even set one of my poems to music, on the spot.
Jill had an abundance of talent, and when she turned her attention to musical theater, it paid off in a big way. Her stage musical “F*ck 7th Grade,” a theatrical piece that seemed like the next logical step in her career, had its premiere at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in the fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. The unique staging (an outdoor drive-in stage at which audience members watched from their cars) was truly inspired. “F*ck 7th Grade” went on to become a New York Times Critic’s pick, as well as earning a Drama Desk nomination.
In honor of the 30th anniversary of Jill’s eponymous 1995 album, reissue label Rhino Records is rereleasing it on red vinyl. Jill and I had been emailing each other to arrange a time for an interview. We even had a date on the books for the third week of May.
When she passed suddenly on May 1, Jill received mentions on network and cable news shows. She was showered with attention from major news outlets, including obits in the New York Times and Rolling Stone (but not Pitchfork, which couldn’t be bothered to review her music when she was alive). Is it wrong to think that if she’d gotten this much attention when she was alive, she could have been as big as Taylor Swift? I don’t think so.
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Donnie Jochum, Gregg Shapiro, Jill Sobule, and Greg Newton.
Did anyone have alt-country on their Perfume Genius bingo card? If so, good for you! Because that’s the dominant, if subtle, sound on the fittingly titled “Glory” (Matador), the seventh Perfume Genius (aka Mike Hadreas) album, and the first in three years. Easily the most accessible release in PG’s catalog, “Glory” features a stellar line-up of guest artists including nonbinary musician Meg Duffy (of Hand Habits fame), Aldous Harding, legendary drummer Jim Keltner, Blake Mills (who also produced) and Hadreas’ longtime partner Alan Wyffels (who also co-wrote some of the songs). The results are utterly gorgeous, user-friendly compositions that play like the ideal combination of the personal and the universal. Each listen (repeated spins are recommended) reveals something new and, well, glorious, especially on “Clean Heart,” “Me & Angel,” “No Front Teeth” (featuring vocals by Harding), “Full On” and “It’s A Mirror.” Even when Perfume Genius returns to the experimental territory for which he is known, as on “Capezio” and “In A Row,” it’s done in an inviting way. Perfume Genius performs on June 18 at First Avenue in Minneapolis
Continued on page 92
Even if another classical music effort wasn’t on your Rufus Wainwright bingo card, there’s no reason to be surprised by “Dream Requiem” (Warner Classics). Early on, Wainwright, the gay son of singer/songwriters Loudon Wainwright III and the late Kate McGarrigle, made it clear that opera was his first love. With “Dream Requiem,” he now has three classical albums to his name, including 2015’s “Prima Donna” and 2016’s “Take All My Love: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets.” Described as “an amalgamation of two musical and creative ideas” that took shape during the pandemic and the California wildfires, “Dream Requiem” features Meryl Streep reciting Lord Byron’s 1816 poem “Darkness” as soprano Anna Prohaska, the Chœur de Radio France and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, under the direction of conductor Mikko Franck, perform the musical portion of Wainwright’s composition.
Some artists deserve their own bingo game altogether. Over the last few years, queer singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile’s collaborative work with Joni Mitchell, Tanya Tucker and Brandy Clark (for all of which she received Grammy Awards) has illustrated her talent in that area. In his own right, Elton John has also proven himself to be an adept collaborator, from “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” his 1976 chart-topping duet with Kiki Dee, and his 1991 “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” duet with George Michael, to entire albums of collabs (1993’s “Duets” and 2021’s “The Lockdown Sessions,” as well as 2010’s “The Union” with Leon Russell). In that regard, it makes sense that a collaboration such as “Who Believes in Angels?” (Interscope) by Elton John & Brandi Carlile would come to be. Taking the teamwork even further, all 10 songs were co-written by John, Carlile, producer Andrew Watt and John’s longtime co-songwriter Bernie Taupin. Album opener “The Rose of Laura Nyro,” an affectionate homage to the late queer musical genius Laura Nyro, incorporates references to her music throughout, and one can only hope that this will lead the uninitiated to explore her vast and miraculous catalog. The song itself is pure vintage Elton John and is a fitting way to set things in motion. Would there
be an Elton John if not for Little Richard? “Little Richard’s Bible,” another musical tribute, attempts to answer that question. Carlile steps to the front on the queer anthem “Swing For The Fences” and the gorgeous “You Without Me.” The Oscar-nominated “Never Too Late,” from the 2024 doc “Elton John: Never Too Late,” is a perfect example of the pair’s effortless musical partnership. The album closes with “When This Old World Is Done With Me,” which sounds like one of John’s most personal compositions, sung from the perspective of a 78-year-old man coming to terms with history and facing his remaining time with dignity.
Perfume Genius. Photos by Cody Critcheloe. Rufus Wainwright. Photo by Miranda Penn Turin
Matt Fishel: The Proud Queer Rocker
Eight singles later and British singer, songwriter and recording artist Matt Fishel is finally releasing his new album. “Tales of Queer Suburbia,” Fishel’s third album, due out just in time for Pride, has had a steady drip of singles teasing the album for over a year.
Unlike singer-songwriters backed by major labels, as an independent artist who believes in “presenting top quality work,” he says it’s not really by design; it’s about practicality and time.
“I do this all myself — I don’t have a big team. I don’t have a lot of help. So, I’m actually not able to move as fast as I’d like to,” he shares, before adding that industry and algorithm changes also make it harder for independent artists to find their audience.
Now, with over half the album already released, Fishel believes there are still a few treats in store.
“The aim with this album, when I set out to do it, was to try and make 13 songs that sat together as a collection, but where none of them really sounded exactly the same,” he says. “So, whilst lyrically and productionwise in terms of the kind of harmonies I use and the melodies, it’s like a collection, there’s quite a few surprises.”
“Tales of Queer Suburbia” features retro throwback influences from the ’80s and ’90s, music that Fishel grew up listening to. Listeners can hear the sounds of power ballads and rock melodies from the likes of Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Cher or Pat Benatar. But the lyrics and perspective take on a deeper meaning with Fishel’s lens applied.
Songs on this album run the gamut from sad and reflective to joyful and triumphant. Some even get political, referencing a provision of the 1988 Local Government Act in the UK under Margaret Thatcher.
“[Clause 28] basically made it illegal for schools and public services to promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle,” Fishel says. “So, an entire generation of people, myself included, went to school in a place
Photos courtesy of Matt Fishel
where it was illegal to be able to be told that it’s okay to be gay, or even that there are gay people that exist.”
He continues, “A lot of it is me looking back as a confident, proud, open gay man now on what it was like to be quite repressed many years ago. And also, there’s a lot of really fun, positive songs on this album about life now as a gay man, and the different experiences that I’m having in the world now that I wasn’t able to have 20 years ago, and I’m putting them all into song.”
Being unapologetically queer isn’t new for Fishel. When he first started recording songs, he had to create his own label, Young Lust Records, to release his music after record executives told him to ditch the queer themes.
“I went ahead regardless,” he says. “I’m like, screw that, I’m gonna go and make queer songs, and I’m gonna be very overtly and expressly queer in my work.”
Acknowledging that there are more opportunities for queer people to see themselves reflected in art, Fishel also explains that there is a long way to go.
“I constantly, continually sought queer representation and had to look for hidden meanings behind things or had to secretly hope that what I was watching or listening to was actually a gay person unable to be 100% open, but trying to communicate,” he says. “I don’t want young people to live in a world where they’re seeking queer art in their small towns and they’re unable to find it. So, any small contribution I can make to that is very rewarding for me and very important.”
His message for his younger self, who launched his own record label, is simple: you need resilience and try to shut out negativity.
“I’d say to myself, that you know already in your heart that this is what you have to do; this is your calling.” He adds, “Ignore the constant homophobia, because that’s always gonna be there. Just focus on what you’re doing, focus on bringing joy and positivity and try not to be bogged down by it.”
Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced musician, our expert teachers will tailor each lesson to help you grow—all in our soundproof studios with top-tier instruments.
Hosted by Nina DiAngelo, this benefit concert and dance party will help Twin Cities Pride cover the shortfall in funds caused by the loss of sponsorships this year.
tcpride.org/events
Unabashed: A Joyful Celebration of Love and Pride
May 31 • Free • Various venues in Minneapolis Do’gooders MN intends to gift a mini personalized wedding experience to LGBTQ+ couples as a part of Unabashed — a day-long joyful celebration of LGBTQ+ love and pride.
June 5 • 5:30-10 p.m. • Machine Shop, 300 Second St. SE, Minneapolis
Twin Cities Pride honors its 2025 Grand Marshal, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. tcpride.org/grand-marshal-reception
Minnesota Twins Pride Day
June 7 • 1:10 p.m. • Twins vs. Toronto Blue Jays • Target Field, Minneapolis Dress in your sportiest rainbow gear and cheer on the Twins as they celebrate the vibrant LGBTQIA+ community so prevalent here in Twins Territory. mlb.com/twins
20th Anniversary Pride Block Party
June 7 • 6-11 p.m. • Three Twenty Brewing Co., 135 Fifth St. SE, Pine City, Minn. Drag shows, street dance, food trucks and more. threetwentybrewing.com
Trans Joy Fest
June 8 • 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. • Duluth, Minn. Hosted by Trans Northland, this event aims to bring love, hope and joy into the transgender, two-spirit and gender expansive community. The festival will feature many vendors, performers, youth- and family-friendly activities, food trucks and so much more. transnorthland.org
Pride Skate Party 2025
June 13 • 9 p.m. to midnight • $15 • 18+ • Cheap Skate Roller Center, 3075 Coon Rapids Blvd., Coon Rapids, Minn.
Twin Cities Pride’s annual Pride Skate Party, hosted by Angela “Hazmat Circus” and Jojo Ventus Ninja, with music by DJ Shannon Blowtorch. Photobooth, vendors, games, food & more! tcpride.org/event/pride-skate-party-2025
MNUFC Pride Night
June 14 • 7:30 p.m. • Minnesota United vs. San Diego FC • Allianz Field, 400 Snelling Ave. N., St. Paul Show your Pride as the Loons take to the field
against San Diego and show their support for the incredible diversity among their LGBTQ+ fans. mnufc.com
Transforming Generations’ 2025 Pride Fest
June 14 • 11-3 p.m. • 110 Harriet Island Road, St. Paul Join Transforming Generations for this welcoming & family-friendly environment for all attendees to connect across communities. This year, Transforming Generations is excited to uplift and celebrate many Hmong LGBTQ+ artists that will be attending, including drag superstars coming from their Drag ON Talent: Mentorship Program! facebook.com/TransformingGenerationsMN
In its world premiere, this show shines a light on the often-overlooked group of survivors and victims of the Holocaust, homosexual men. The show follows an intolerant father and his gay son attempting to find common ground, hope and forgiveness in a concentration camp. phoenixtheatermpls.org
Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus presents “Leading Ladies: Divas of Broadway”
June 21 and 22 • 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, 2 p.m. on Sunday • Tickets $28-$53 • Ordway Concert Hall, 345 Washington St., St. Paul Join TCGMC and Broadway star Britney Coleman for a concert that is a little bit beauty and a little bit beast that brings the best of Broadway’s music sung by the biggest divas to grace the stage. Visit their website to purchase tickets. tcgmc.org
Minnesota Lynx Pride Night
June 21 • 7 p.m. (Time subject to change) • Target Center, Minneapolis
Come out and celebrate Pride Night as the Lynx take on the LA Sparks. lynx.wnba.com
TC Pride Family Fun Day
June 22 • 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. • Rain or Shine! • Como Park East Pavilions, 1199 Midway Pkwy., St. Paul
Join Twin Cities Pride for a free Family Fun Day held annually to help celebrate LGBTQ+ families. Hot dogs, chips, beverages and more, along with fun, crafts and games for kids. tcpride.org/family-fun-day
LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Demonstration Box
Tending on Nicollet Island
June 25 • 6-8 p.m. • Nicollet Island, Minneapolis
Join Friends of the Mississippi River for a special evening during Pride Month to come together and revitalize the planting demonstration boxes in the Nicollet Island prairie. fmr.org/events/lgbtqia2s-pride-demonstrationbox-tending-nicollet-island
Saint Paul Saints Pride Night presented by Midwest Dairy
June 27 • 7:07 p.m. • Saints vs. Louisville Bats • CHS Field, St. Paul
Dress in your rainbow best and come out to see the Saints take on Louisville! milb.com/st-paul
Pride Beer Dabbler 2025
June 27 • 6-9:30 p.m., 5 p.m. with Early Access • Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
Get ready to dress cute and raise your glasses and Pride flags because Pride Beer Dabbler is back this year for its 13th year and bringing together over 70 Minnesota breweries and cideries!
beerdabbler.com/festivals/pride-beer-dabbler
Twin Cities Pride Festival
June 28 and 29 • Loring Park, 1382 Willow St., Minneapolis
The second largest Pride festival in the U.S. and the largest free Pride festival, you’ll find hundreds of vendors, including LGBTQ+ and BIPOC community resources, artists and businesses, along with music, food and entertainment as well as the Pride parade on Sunday through downtown Minneapolis. tcpride.org
A 5K run, starting at MCTC on Hennepin Avenue and following the parade route, turning around at the Mississippi River and running back down Hennepin to MCTC. The Kid’s Rainbow Dash runs two blocks on Hennepin from 11th to Spruce. tcpride.org
Stonewall Sports 11th Annual National Tournament
July 17-20 • Various venues around Columbus, Ohio
Join Stonewall Sports and its Twin Cities chapter for a fun-filled weekend of festivities! The tournament is expected to bring more than 3,000 LGBTQ+ people and their allies from across the U.S. to connect, compete and create community.
stonewallsports.org/national-tournament
Northern Minnesota CampOUT
August 7-10 • West Forty RV Park Campground, Gilbert, Minn.
Enjoy an LGBTQ+ safe space, make new friends and explore the beauty of Northern Minnesota! This year’s CampOUT will be coordinated with Range Iron Pride.
westfortyrvpark.com/campout-weekend
A Community Champion on the Track
It is worth repeating here, we cannot be inspired to do anything unless we see someone in our community doing it. That includes participating as a motorsports athlete.
Our numbers are growing, thanks to organizations such as Racing Pride. They are a portal for those of us who are motorsports athletes, team personnel, fans, journalists and content creators.
From that portal comes another young race car driver who has just landed a key ride in the Automobile Racing Club of America’s (ARCA) Menards Series. His name is Michael Klein. Based in the Cincinnati area, the 27-year-old Klein has been racing for 10 years.
“I started out in go-karts, dirt track racing, and eventually I moved into the open wheel scene. And the past couple of years, I’ve started to run stock cars,” Klein says.
For his ARCA Menards Series debut, Klein is driving for Wayne Peterson Racing this season. For Klein, it was a process getting to this point in his racing career.
“I just always was in love with racing and my parents never really had the resources or the connections to make it happen,” Klein explains. “After years of begging, we eventually got a gokart when I was about 17 years old, and that’s kind of what kick-started everything.”
Klein continues: “We went there, we won some races, and then we eventually moved on to what are called dirt midgets, which are smaller versions of a sprint car. I did that for about five years. And then over the past couple years, I’ve really kind of stuck to more of the stock car kind of stuff.”
However, Klein noted that the ARCA Menards Series ride has been in the works for some time.
“I attended school at the University of Northwestern Ohio, and they actually have a program there because it’s a high-performance technical institute,” Klein says. “What they do is that they actually put students on ARCA Menards teams, and they go to the track each week and they help the team out.”
From there, Klein got the bug for stock car racing. His passion for the sport has shown to earn his seat in the ARCA Menards Series.
When you’re driving in the ARCA Menards Series, you could eventually get a NASCAR seat. At least in one of the national touring series — whether it is the Craftsman Truck Series, the Xfinity Series or the Cup Series. ARCA races former Cup Series cars, which serve as a basis for drivers to hone their craft towards making it to the next level of stock car racing.
Part of this journey is getting sponsors to back drivers so they can go racing. In Klein’s case, his employer came through with a sponsorship. However, his love of anime secured a sponsorship with VTuber Kori-Oujo. Klein is also working on securing sponsorships and community connections, such as STEM Punks, Right to Breathe and Drive for Humanity, an organization dedicated to helping deal with homelessness and hunger in the U.S. These are organizations he wants to help raise awareness for that are important to him.
“It’s just kind of helping those who are less fortunate or are going through hard times,” Klein says. “It’s a cause that, as someone who’s been through some hard times, it’s something that is really near and dear to my heart.”
Klein also connected with Racing Pride, an international organization to uplift LGBTQ+ motorsports athletes, crew members, journalists, influencers and other people who are in the competition business. Klein reached out to them before he came out, showing his support for them.
A few years ago, Racing Pride founder Richard Morris reached out to Klein about their Ambassador Community Champion program, where their members show their visibility
Photos courtesy of Michael Klein
through outreach efforts online and at motorsports events. Klein said “Yes.”
“I’m just so happy to be a part of this organization because, growing up, I didn’t see people like me in this sport, and it was something that I kind of thought I would have to keep to myself for so long,” explains Klein. “It’s just been so freeing, being able to be a part of that.”
There have been a couple of LGBTQ+ drivers in the stock car world in the past, such as Stephen Rhodes, Devon Rouse, Zach Herrin and others.
According to Klein, being out and proud is “very important because it’s still something where we’re not very visible to a lot of people. And unfortunately, I do believe that has shown recently. But my goal is to not give up. It’s to show anyone who is LGBTQ+, whether you’re gay, bi, pan, trans, nonbinary, I want to show you that there is a spot for you in this sport.”
As of this writing, Klein is scheduled to run with Wayne Peterson Racing at the ARCA Menards Series East race on July 25 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. The series will also make a stop at Elko Raceway on June 21.
If you’re looking for someone to root for on the racetrack, Michael Klein could be your next stock car driver. He is already a champion for our community.
BY LINDA RAINES
The Queen Rises from the Ashes Like a Phoenix
The 19 Bar has been a solid neighborhood staple in the Loring Park area since 1952. Ensconced in an unassumingly low grey brick building with a maroon awning and trim, and settled into its spot at 19 W. 15th St. — hence its name! — the 19 has served as its clientele’s local watering hole for decades. Much like the 1980s TV show “Cheers,” it truly was the kind of bar where “everyone knows your name.”
The dark exposed brick walls, the pinball machines and juke box, the neon signs casting a subtle glow over dart boards, the pool tables illuminated by hanging stained glass light fixtures overhead, the large bar with patrons seated around it, enjoying their drinks and chatting with each other and the bartenders … all came together to make for a safe, inclusive and welcoming atmosphere for the LGBTQ+ community in the Twin Cities. Young people mingled with the older crowd, all enjoying each other’s company in the embrace of a Loring Park institution.
In pride of place on one of the walls hung a painting of Queen Elizabeth II, a longtime fixture of the 19 Bar that everyone knew and loved, and that had graced the north wall of the bar for decades. The Queen ascended the throne of Great Britain in the same year that the 19 Bar came into being, and her portrait held court as solidly as the bar itself.
All of this came to an abrupt end on the afternoon of March 22, 2024, when a garbage truck hit a nearby utility pole, causing live electrical wires to fall on the building’s gas supply and ignite a fire that raged rampant through the building. Nearby residents watched in shock and despair as the Minneapolis Fire Department valiantly battled the flames, trying to save the iconic building.
When the flames were extinguished, the devastation was apparent — while nobody had been injured, the damage was significant. The basement, first floor and ceiling were heavily impacted by fire, smoke and water, leaving the 19 Bar’s eight employees out of work. A GoFundMe was quickly established to help, raising over $25,000 to assist them with expenses while owner Gary Hallberg embarked on the monumental task of rebuilding the LGBTQ+ watering hole.
by
The age of the building, along with numerous city codes and inspections, mounting expenses and an ongoing lawsuit with the garbage company that owned the truck, caused the restoration and reopening of the 19 Bar to take longer than expected. Still, Hallberg persevered, knowing how important the bar was to the residents in the area, especially as other old bars and landmarks were disappearing to neglect, gentrification and obsolescence as the neighborhood changed with time. To see a thriving and beloved neighborhood bar disappear and be leveled for yet another luxury condo or apartment building was something that neither he nor the 19 Bar’s new owner, Craig Wilson, were willing to allow if at all possible.
Finally, after nearly a year, the day for the grand reopening arrived. Earlier plans had it scheduled for opening on New Year’s Eve, but city inspections and requirements pushed it out to February 27, 2025. Excited patrons gathered for the ribbon cutting, which had both Hallman and Wilson sharing the giant scissors to cut the rainbow ribbon and allow patrons back inside for their triumphant return to the glow of neon, the clacking of pool balls, and the laughter and witty repartee between old friends and new.
The 19 Bar is back, with a freshly updated look due to the restoration, but still with the comfortable and traditional feel that patrons have long associated with the establishment and have come to love and appreciate. With the Twin Cities Pride Festival just around the corner, it’s certain that the place will be packed like usual, overflowing from the inside out onto the patio to celebrate the camaraderie and party atmosphere that spills over from the park long after the vendors and booths have drawn their curtains for the night. The venerable 19 Bar is ready to march on to another 70 years of serving the community — members and allies alike, celebrating the diversity and deep loyalty of the neighborhood that has supported the 19 Bar for so long.
And yes, the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, saved from the flames, is back in her longtime spot, proving that true royalty will never be kept down for long.
Long live the gem in the crown of Loring Park’s LGBTQ+ community.
Photo
Nathan Johnson
Giving to Get, Getting to Give: How Queermunity is Building a Regenerative Economy
In a bright, open-concept space in Uptown Minneapolis, Queermunity is redefining what a community center can be. Just six months after its grand opening, the queer-led hub has already become a vital gathering space, offering coworking offices, a café, event venues and even a bar.
Queermunity is more than a hangout. It’s a self-sustaining social enterprise built for — and by — the LGBTQ+ community. Every dollar spent inside goes directly back into the organization, creating a regenerative economy that supports the people it serves.
Cofounders Hilary Otey and Kayla Barth knew they wanted to create a community space for everyone.
“We wanted this to be an intersectional space. We wanted to ensure everybody came here. Being a Black woman, there are spaces where I don’t feel welcome,” Barth reflects.
“I wanted to go and create a space where I felt welcome in all of my intersectionality.”
They knew what they wanted to do, but the how eluded them. Otey has more than 25 years of nonprofit management experience and an MBA in nonprofit administration, giving her an intimate understanding of how the nonprofit world functions. With Otey’s extensive professional experience and educational background, she knew the potential pitfalls she could encounter, and she wanted to create something that was structured for sustainability while meeting the needs of a community. So, Otey applied for the Finnovation Fellowship, a program that supports sustainable social entrepreneurship.
The fellowship provided a year-long stipend, wherein Otey wanted to make a substantial impact. Otey researched the history of queer and trans spaces in the Twin Cities area, considering why some projects succeed where others failed. She hosted town hall meetings and focus groups, fielded hundreds of surveys and interviewed upwards of 60 community leaders.
Otey dedicated her fellowship to trying to understand what the community needed and wanted. No surprise — the queer community needed … everything.
And that’s exactly what they set out to do. But Otey was intimately familiar with the limitations of existing business models like nonprofits and crowdfunded organizations.
Otey
With a vision in place, the next step was figuring out how to bring it to life. Otey’s investigation made it clear what not to do: start an NGO. She did not want her organization to be yet another nonprofit competing for already limited grants and donors, adding another player to an already competitive market.
If not an NGO, then what? Otey didn’t want to sponsor a crowdfunding campaign and ask their community to invest in the distant promise of a “someday.” To crowdfund Queermunity would likely take serious time, time they didn’t have. Queermunity needed to happen fast.
Queermunity decided to try something unconventional for their business model: a social enterprise, or a business with the explicit purpose of generating revenue for a specific social issue. Traditionally, a social enterprise reinvests the majority of its income into its mission.
That isn’t all that out of the ordinary. Queermunity sets itself apart from similar business structures because it is sustained by the community it was created to serve. The people who buy coffee at the cafe, rent a coworking space and pay their membership fees are paying directly back into the Queermunity space and contributing to a regenerative economy.
“It’s an experiment,” Otey says. “Nothing has been done like this before. It’s a unique model worth trying.”
Barth and Otey bankrolled the initial founding, startup and renovation with small business loans. They consider it an investment in their longterm vision of transitioning Queermunity into a member/worker-owned co-op. This model would give community members concrete control over the direction of the organization. But they’re not quite there yet. Queermunity first has to prove its long-term viability. While there are some loans to pay off, the first six months of Queermunity are more than promising, with the organization on the fast-track to installing itself as a pillar in the Twin Cities’ queer community.
The social enterprise model isn’t permanent, and the founders hope to eventually transition to a co-op after the business has gained enough traction and has proven its long-term sustainability.
Queermunity is harnessing a swath of different revenue streams from cafes to office space rentals to community partner offices. The unique business model affords Queermunity the flexibility to adapt.
That’s what Queermunity provides: opportunity. Opportunity for the community to do what they want. It’s just the beginning for the community center, and it’s likely to evolve, just like their founders designed it.
Otey reflects on her years-long journey, expressing that she believes she was called to open Queermunity.
“I envision this huge wooden door with a thousand keyholes. Every single little key had to fit, and everyone had to turn it at the same time for something this big to happen. And it did.”
BY KARRI PLOWMAN
Pride in Ourselves during these Times!
On a wonderful (fingers crossed for good weather) Sunday morning at the end of June, a 2 1/2-year campaign will officially come to a close with the introduction of the new Minnesota Leather Pride Flag as it marches down Hennepin Avenue. Accompanying that flag will be new and old members of the queer and leather kink communities who worked tirelessly over the last few years to bring this flag into existence. This is the third leather pride flag to walk the Ashley Rukes Pride Parade — and, with the addition of 10 feet, to our knowledge, the largest leather pride flag in the world.
However, in contemplating how to write this article for the Lavender Pride Edition, I reflected on the article last year, calling everyone’s attention to how I believed the leather pride flag stands for freedom of expression for all of us. A year later, in a different political time with so many of our fellow community members hurting in various ways, how does celebrating a new leather pride flag resonate? Why is this important? Other than our Minnesota love to have the largest thing — be it spoon, candy store or ball of twine.
Full disclosure, I serve on the Minnesota Leather Pride board, and chaired — which I’m happy to say in the past tense, by the time you read this article — the Leather Pride flag fundraising committee. Part of this fundraising has included turning the old flag into items that have been sold to the community to raise funds for the new flag. This position has given me a unique opportunity to hear stories and gain perspectives during the march for a new flag, changing my perspective between initially taking up this task and the fundraising campaign’s completion.
Myself and many fellow Leather Pride Board members came out of the COVID era into the
Pride season of 2022 a bit irked. Twin Cities Pride had then largely forgotten about Minnesota Leather Pride during its 50th Anniversary celebrations. We were just the group of people sweating in hot clothes that followed the other flags until the good parade entries came throwing candy. The flag campaign itself had just been a line item in our budget from years prior that noted the flag should be replaced every 12 years. We were already two years late. A new leather flag was a way to remind all of the community of our importance.
Delving into historical documents, I found an agreement with Twin Cities Pride and Minnesota Leather Pride from 2008 laying out their organizations’ responsibilities and jointly agreeing to present the flags together for the future. We knew it existed, but seeing an original document made it real. A noteworthy video exists on the Leather Archive and Museum in Chicago’s YouTube channel of the first leather flag retirement and second flag unveiling during the Twin Cities Pride parade in 2008. Pictures upon pictures existed of smiling faces with the flag at previous parades. But it was the stories of individuals that shifted my feelings of being forgotten.
A young trans woman shared that walking with the leather pride flag was the first time she had openly embraced who she was as a kinky person. A popular local drag queen shared that they remembered the leather pride flag as a kid in the parade; it was the first time they ran into the street to throw money. A long-dating couple shared that they had walked with the flag for years together before they could legally wed. Folks from around the country in the leather community have told me how they traveled to Minnesota during Pride to walk with leather in the parade, how seeing such a huge flag and
loving community inspired them in their own community. A photographer warned me: never go under the flag for a photo — it is quite heavy.
During this fundraising campaign, I’ve seen countless people donate time to make donations from teddy bears to bowties, suspenders to pillows. I’ve seen people donate time and money because they loved the Leather Pride flag and the project. Over 45 individuals showed up with a few nights’ notice to drape the flag around themselves for a quick fundraising pop-up. One individual said to me, “I work hard so I can donate to causes I care about.”
Two-and-a-half years ago, I started chairing a fundraising project because I thought Leather Pride had been forgotten. Our communities taught me that not only is Leather Pride and the Leather Pride Flag not forgotten, but it is also an important part of our collective memories. So, I answered my own question by writing this article in 2025.
The new Leather Pride Flag is important during these difficult times because it will become the vehicle for new stories and new experiences. New queer generations will have their opportunity to walk down Hennepin Avenue on a Sunday in all their leather kinky glory. New couples will form, resistance will continue and opportunities to help give back to our communities will always come up. But, once a year, that big, bold striped flag with a huge heart will unfurl on the street and bring everyone walking alongside her to the same destination … Pride!
I invite everyone to see the new flag during this year’s Parade and stop by the Minnesota Leather Pride Booth for other information on the old flag and leather pride.
BY JOEY AMATO
Guided by Opal: Dylan Bell’s Rise as a Top LGBTQ Psychic Medium
Dylan Bell’s story starts in the heartland of Ohio, where the backdrop of his childhood was a quintessential Midwestern scene — a small town with a cornfield in the backyard. Growing up in a close-knit family of five, with his parents and two older brothers, Dylan’s life was deeply rooted in Christian values. His family attended church three times a week, instilling a strong sense of faith and community in him from a young age. This religious upbringing, however, also set the stage for significant challenges Dylan would face as he grew older and began to understand his true self.
“Coming out as gay in a conservative, religious environment was incredibly difficult,” Dylan mentions. “At 19, during my sophomore year of college, I decided to come out to my family and community. The response was devastating. I was told I was destined for Hell and was even forced to meet with the pastor of my church in an attempt to ‘correct’ my orientation. This experience was profoundly isolating, but it also marked the beginning of a journey toward self-acceptance and independence.” Moving away from his family’s expectations, Dylan started to forge his own path, one that would eventually lead him to discover his true calling.
Dylan’s journey into the world of mediumship and spiritual guidance began in earnest at the age of 22. After earning his certification in Reiki Level Two, he started to explore card readings. His Reiki teacher quickly noticed his unique abilities and suggested that Dylan might be a medium. Through several one-on-one sessions, his teacher helped him understand his gift, thus allowing him to find how to understand how Spirit connected with him. It was
during this time that Dylan began working closely with his main spirit guide, Opal, learning how to communicate with past loved ones and understand the messages they conveyed. This discovery was a turning point in Dylan’s life, leading him to fully embrace his abilities and start helping others.
In 2014, Dylan founded Opal’s Truth, a business dedicated to offering mediumship, energy (chakra-based) and tarot readings. “The name of the business honors my spirit guide, Opal, who played a crucial role in helping me harness my gifts. Over the past decade, Opal’s Truth has grown into a respected service, known for its compassionate and insightful readings.” Dylan’s work has been recognized in a Do317 article and has earned him the title of the number one psychic medium in Indianapolis on Yelp since 2019. Through Opal’s Truth, Dylan has connected thousands of individuals with their past loved ones, offering comfort, closure and guidance.
Opal’s Truth primarily grows through word-of-mouth referrals. “Clients who have had transformative experiences with my readings share their stories with friends and family, leading to new inquiries and appointments.”
Additionally, Dylan maintains a website that provides information about his services and allows people to book sessions. This combination of personal recommendations and online presence has helped Dylan build a solid client base and establish himself as a trusted figure in the spiritual community.
“Working as a psychic medium comes with its own set of challenges. One of the most demanding aspects of my job is interpreting the energy and messages from the spiritual realm and communicating them effectively to his clients. This process requires a great deal of sensitivity and skill. Additionally, being open about his gift has sometimes led to people viewing me more as a novelty than a person.” Some individuals seek his company only to receive free readings or to boast about having a psychic medium as a friend.
Moreover, the emotional weight of his work can be exhausting. “Conducting readings often involves encountering deep grief, which can leave me feeling drained and heavy.” To maintain his well-being, Dylan practices diligent self-care and ensures he takes time to rest and recharge.
Despite the challenges, Dylan finds immense reward in his work. “The most fulfilling aspect of my job is seeing the positive impact his readings have on my clients. Many people find peace, healing and a sense of closure through their sessions.” Knowing that his work can change lives for the better gives Dylan a profound sense of purpose. He views his role as a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds as a mission, a calling that brings meaning and fulfillment to his life.
In addition to mediumship, Dylan offers a range of other services through Opal’s Truth. Energy readings focus on an individual’s chakras, helping to identify areas of flow and imbalance. Through these readings, Dylan provides guidance on how clients can achieve better energy alignment through actions or meditation. Card readings, on the other hand, offer insights into a person’s current path, helping them validate their direction or consider potential adjustments.
Dylan also provides coaching sessions for psychic development and life coaching, supporting individuals who wish to explore their own intuitive abilities or need guidance in their personal lives. While he offers Reiki sessions, Dylan admits that Reiki is not his primary passion. Instead, he focuses on the aspects of his work that resonate most deeply with him and bring the greatest benefit to his clients.
“When it comes to skeptics, I maintain a calm and confident approach. I believe it is not my job to change anyone’s mind or convince them of the validity of my work. Instead, I focus on being the best psychic medium I can be, letting my work speak for itself.” This philosophy helps him stay grounded and true to his mission, regardless of others’ opinions.
Dylan Bell’s journey from a challenging upbringing in Ohio to becoming a respected psychic medium and founder of Opal’s Truth is a testament to his resilience, authenticity and dedication to helping others. Through his work, Dylan has touched countless lives, offering comfort, guidance and healing to those in need. As he continues to honor souls and harmonize lives, Dylan remains committed to his mission, finding profound purpose and fulfillment in his role as a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds.
For more information about Dylan and to book a reading, visit www.opalstruth.com.
Photos courtesy of Jordan Wheatley
DATE: Saturday, June 7, 2025
TIME: 10am to 4pm
Don’t Give Up This Pride Month: Give OUT For LGBTQ+ Organizations!
Pride Month is the perfect time to celebrate and support all your favorite queer-owned businesses, restaurants, organizations and more — but not just with words. Put your money where your mouth is this Pride Month and show the love to queer organizations by making a donation during National Give OUT Day!
National Give OUT is the United States’ only official national giving event completely devoted to uplifting LGBTQ+ organizations. This year, Give OUT Day will be hosted on June 5. Early Giving begins on Thursday, May 22, and the giving period closes on June 30, so organizations can continue to fundraise throughout the entirety of Pride Month.
Jenna Ray, a citizen of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana and a proud member of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, has been serving as the interim executive director of GiveMN since January, and she’s excited for a successful Give OUT event this year.
“As LGBTQ+ organizations continue to face increasing challenges, Give OUT Day has been instrumental in generating critical funds,
increasing visibility and fostering meaningful community engagement and support for hundreds of causes nationwide,” Ray says.
Since its creation in Minnesota in 2013, “[Give Out Day has] helped to raise more than $10 million for hundreds of LGBTQ+ organizations nationwide,” according to Ray. This year, the organization is hoping for a massive success, especially amid funding cutbacks at the federal level.
Of course, giving to queer foundations and organizations is always important, but now more than ever, individual support of queer orgs is imperative.
“With corporations stepping back their support for LGBTQ+ causes, it’s crucial individuals step up, and Give OUT is a great time to give back,” Ray says. “You can make your gift anytime on giveoutday.org.”
Ray continues, “As LGBTQ+ organizations continue to face increasing challenges, Give OUT Day has been instrumental in generating critical funds, increasing visibility and fostering meaningful community engagement and support for hundreds of causes nationwide … Give OUT Day plays a crucial role in ensuring LGBTQ+-centering nonprofits have the resources to advocate for and protect their communities amid rising anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, federal funding disruptions and DEI rollbacks.”
In other words, now is the time for our community to band together and show how strong we are as a group. LGBTQ+ community
Pride festival with rainbow American flag. Photo courtesy of Pexels/Gotta Be Worth It. Man wearing ‘Volunteer’ shirt. Photo courtesy of Pexels/RDNE Stock Project. Two people in bandanas kissing. Photo courtesy of Pexels/Brett Sayles.
members and allies have a duty to support one another through these incredibly challenging times, and a great way to start is by donating to queer organizations on National Give OUT Day!
Here’s how National Give OUT Day breaks down: queer organizations register their cause on giveoutday.org/search, which creates a super easy-to-use database of LGBTQ+ orgs to donate to. Individuals who wish to donate to one of the causes can scroll through the organizations to find their favorites, learn about new causes and select the best ones to donate to!
And to help spread the word of your donation (and hopefully get more people to donate!)
“Once you’ve made your gift, you can spread the word on social media using #GiveOUTDay2025,” Ray says.
And the best part about it is … it’s not hard to do! Give OUT Day has a continuously-growing list of tons of different queer causes you can check out on their website, giveoutday.org/ search, so there’s a little something for everyone to be proud to donate to. With more than a thousand fundraisers, organizations, events and teams, you’re sure to find a worthy cause (or several!) to support this Give OUT Day.
And if you’re looking to donate locally, that’s
no problem either. Even though Give OUT Day is a national program, it was created right here in Minnesota, and there are plenty of local causes to check out.
“Last I checked, there were 40 — and counting — Minnesota-based organizations planning to take part in Give OUT Day, working on everything from youth development to arts and culture, advocacy, health, reproductive justice
and more,” Ray says.
This Pride Month, we’re taking to the streets in celebration, shopping queer-owned, and of course, donating to LGBTQ+ organizations. In other words, this Pride, it’s giving giving!
You can learn more about National Give OUT Day on their website, giveoutday.org, and follow @giveoutdayus on Instagram for all the latest updates!
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Shine Out Loud - How Prism Organizing Reaches Many Through a Welcoming Arch of Love, Patience and Kindness
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet are the beautiful hues that grace the LGBTQ+ Pride flag we have come to know and proudly wave today. These very colors and what they represent become more visible through Prism Organizing, a multi-hyphenate community organization that aims to bring a platform to everyone. Lavender had the incredible opportunity to sit down with its founder, the Rev. Oby Ballinger, a Minnesota native who was inspired by the impact of community, unity and togetherness on his childhood
Ballinger says that Prism intends to lead and love with arms open enough to embrace the many different identities, walks and demographics of diversity we as a human race have the opportunity to experience. Ministry has been the channel for Ballinger to practice love, and Prism the propeller to lead a movement that welcomes with warmth. A movement where all who gather are encouraged to lead with light, using light as a navigator in times that seem a bit dark.
But this light into the unknown welcomes curiosity, and this collaboration becomes a woven cloak of change through courage. Prism has donned this cloak via its listening sessions. These are opportunities for the community to come together to do check-ins and re-adjustments where necessary. The intention is to ensure everyone’s voice is being heard. With respect to any belief system, any sexual orientation, any preferred identity, your voice and thoughts matter.
Ballinger shared with us the origin of listening sessions: “These go back as far as the Civil Rights movement and earlier. They’ve been in practice in most community organizing spaces that I’ve been a part of over the last 25 years.” When we take examples of history that work, we find that there are closer solutions to the chaos of everyday life.
Continued on page 116
Photos courtesy of Oby Ballinger
“The idea is, gather the community together to become a student of the community,” Ballinger says. “To ask: ‘What does this community treasure and love?’ ‘What’s hard about being community in this time and place?’ ‘And, if we were to work on some things together, what might be on your wish list?’”
To be a student of the masses is true leadership, and where Prism is able to fully commit itself to bringing necessary resources to a “central location of community, allies and advocates.”
Prism’s call to service is observable through their mobilization of faith leaders to bring assurance and support to the LGBTQ+ community and accountability to policymakers. Change starts with those who know that a change is needed.
Community is about uniting and celebrating the beautiful diversity that comes in different variations. Different shouldn’t scare us; it should encourage us to be curious to ask those three questions Ballinger asks at listening sessions. It should lift us to a place where there is a connection so ethereal that healing happens. And finally, it should remind us that we are different with intention because there is a gift of wholeness waiting
for us to embrace one another.
Prism has charged the LGBTQ+ community, faith leaders, nonpracticing people and allies alike to be courageous enough to gather for something beyond ourselves, a blueprint for future generations to understand what it means to don this cloak of unity. To shine out loud: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red! There is a torch that has been burned, signifying the loud echoes of the many that gather in warmth. Hope is actioned with intention and voice.
Ballinger closed with this profound perspective: “Community helps people remember that they are not alone. To learn from them what matters. To learn their desire for a community that gathers.”
This was the perfect reminder that spaces like this matter, to remind people that they are wanted and assure they are heard. Prism’s goal is to continue to get information out about community gathering opportunities that go beyond annual Pride festivals and serve as a daily, maybe weekly, confirmation that you have a neighbor and a friend.
If you would like to learn more about what Prism has in store for the future, please visit their website, prismorganizing.org
OUR AFFAIRS | CAUSES
BY NOAH MITCHELL
Gay for Good Twin Cities Has a Good Thing Going
“Oh, it’s going remarkably well,” says Gay for Good Twin Cities Chapter Leader Jayne Schaecher.
“We could do five events a month, and they’d all be capped,” adds Heidi Schreiber, who holds the same title at the same organization.
“Typically, when we ask for 25 people, we get 30 people that volunteer so that there’s a waiting list to be involved in our events,” Schaecher concludes.
But it wasn’t always this way.
Gay for Good started in Los Angeles when three friends got together to put the positive impact of the LGBTQ+ community on display after the passage of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California, in 2008.
It was introduced to the Twin Cities in March 2015 when Beth Mejia, who served on the Human Rights Campaign Board of Governors along with Schreiber, visited the home of Schaecher and Schreiber. Around the dining room table, they discussed the volunteering organization Mejia had discovered in Los Angeles and how it might be a good fit for the Twin Cities, Schaecher says.
In April 2015, Gay for Good Twin Cities hosted its first event, an Earth Day cleanup of a park in North Minneapolis, Schreiber says. Over the past 10 years, Gay for Good Twin Cities has grown to become one of the biggest Gay for Good chapters in the country.
“Our Gay for Good is always, constantly, doing the most events, turning away people. We have the largest leadership group,” Schreiber says. “I mean, there’s something about Minnesota and the willingness to volunteer here.”
In 2015, Gay for Good Twin Cities had 190 volunteers and put in 701 hours, according to Schaecher. In 2016, they had 245 volunteers and put in 765 hours. In 2024, they had 451 volunteers and 1,200 hours.
In addition to increasing its volunteer hours, G4GTC has also increased its reputation, to a point where nonprofits seek out its volunteers rather than the other way around. They’ve now worked with 71 different nonprofit partners, according to Schaecher.
“Well, we’ve definitely become more visible,” Schaecher says. “We’ve become an organization that other nonprofits look to for assistance. Not a week goes by where we don’t get requests from nonprofits to help them on upcoming events.”
Schreiber continues: “The first year or two, we were kind of scrambling to find people who needed help, and now we have more than enough people coming to us for help.”
Gay for Good Twin Cities volunteers aren’t only connecting with local nonprofits, though; they’re also connecting with each other. Most events are followed by some sort of socializing, often a lunch after a morning spent volunteering, according to Schaecher.
Those connections can grow into lifelong friendships. One of Schaecher and Schreiber’s fellow chapter leaders joins them not only at chapter leadership meetings but also at their whiskey club.
Another couple at that first North Minneapolis park cleanup had their wedding scheduled for September 26 — the same day as Schaecher and Schreiber. That instant connection led them to dinner together and eventually to a fully-fledged friendship. Half of that couple is Janine Vesper, now the national treasurer for Gay for Good.
Photos courtesy of Jayne Schaecher
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Along with developing friendships, Schaecher and Schreiber hope to aid in the continuing development of Gay for Good Twin Cities.
“Something we’ve been talking about is getting out of the Twin Cities and volunteering, maybe in St. Cloud or Stillwater, just to get out of the Twin Cities to get more visibility,” Schreiber says.
“The whole idea is to get involved, meet new friends and make a difference,” Schaecher adds, making clear what Gay for Good Twin Cities wants to be seen for.
They’d like to have more volunteer opportunities than any other chapter, Schaecher says, at least two or three every month. They wouldn’t mind someone pitching in to keep their volunteers’ bellies full, either.
“I think a long-term goal is to have some corporate sponsorship,” Schaecher says. “We’d definitely like to partner with someone that could donate water to our group, you know, a case of water while we’re doing
• Free in-home consultation
volunteer projects, or snacks, as simple as that. We would love for someone to partner up with us.”
But, for the most part, they’re content to keep the good thing they have going.
“But as far as long-term goals,” Schaecher begins.
“I say just keep on doing what we’re doing!” Schrieber finishes. “And grow it bigger!”
For an organization like Gay for Good Twin Cities, where the mission is as easily endorsable as “get involved, meet new friends and make a difference,” it doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.
To stay up-to-date with Gay for Good Twin Cities’ event schedule and find more information on how to get involved, visit their website, gayforgood.org/twincities/.
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Coming of Age: Queer Youth
of Faith Find Themselves in the Intersections of Identity
Finding community in the queer community can be a difficult thing if you don’t live in a place with lots of queer organizations, meet-ups or groups. It can also be a challenge if you identify outside of what might be typically seen as the “norm” when it comes to queer spirituality.
For example, if you identify as a person of faith, along with a queer identity, you might feel like you’re all alone in your beliefs — an outsider to both the religious community and the LGBTQ+ community. That’s where Beloved Arise, the first-ever national organization dedicated to empowering youth to embrace both their faith and their queer identity, comes into play!
Beloved Arise is a multi-faith community that celebrates and embraces queer youth and young adults from all faith traditions.
Sabrina and Sid. Photos courtesy of Haylee Elmore
“We uplift and empower LGBTQ+ young people in all spiritual beliefs, identities, expressions and aspirations,” its website says.
Sabrina, a Beloved Arise Youth Ambassador who identifies as both queer and Jewish, says, “Having a community of faith is very important to me because, outside of the fact of whether or not I’m accepted as a queer person, connecting with others who share the same faith and practices brings more meaningfulness and positivity to my faith.”
This intersection is incredibly important to queer people of faith. They should not have to forfeit a part of themselves to be accepted for being exactly who they are: both queer and faithful. This can be a challenge on both ends: queer spaces don’t always support religious practices, and religious spaces often don’t support queerness.
“Throughout much of the time following my discovery of my queerness, I felt like there were [two] different versions of me: me at synagogue and religious spaces and me in queer spaces — a common experience of queer people of faith,” Sabrina shares. “I knew I was whole, and that my identities were not separate from one another … but there was this dissonance I felt, like I was a spy in each space, and they couldn’t learn
my other identity. Having spaces dedicated to queer people of faith gives us the opportunity to be our whole selves without the dissonance of leaving parts of ourselves at the door. It gives us grace and relief from feeling safe to express who we are without fear.”
Beloved Arise steps in to be the middle ground and provide that intersectional community for queer people of faith, exactly like Sabrina says.
Sid High, a trans man of faith, says, “Faith and queerness are not opposites, they are both journeys of truth, courage and love. It’s okay to feel scared, especially if you’ve been hurt before. But there are communities out there that will celebrate all of you, your spirit, your identity, your heart.”
In its simplest form, Beloved Arise provides what every single person, especially young queer folks, seeks: a community. A place to belong. A family. By connecting faithful queer youth with peers and mentors, Beloved Arise helps everyone in the community feel less alone.
“Through this work [as an ambassador], I get to be a voice to amplify, validate and celebrate the experiences of queer youth of faith,” Sabrina says.
High agrees, saying that his work as a youth ambassador for Beloved Arise has “… showed me that I’m able to help others like me have a safe space to call home within their faith, and it means the world to me.”
Essentially, just like any community or safe space, Beloved Arise gives queer youth of faith a place to exist wholly and fully as themselves. It’s just as High says, “[as] queer people of faith we deserve a space where we can be fully authentic loved, seen and safe without having to choose between who we are and what we hold true in our hearts spiritually.”
If there’s one thing Pride is all about, it’s loving and accepting yourself exactly as you are. Beloved Arise not only accepts you at every intersection where you find yourself, but it also celebrates your identity. There are few things as truly beautiful as finding a place where you can celebrate yourself completely, and Beloved Arise is proud to be one of those pockets of safety.
Learn more about Beloved Arise on their website, belovedarise.org, or check out their Instagram @beloved_arise!
Books
“No
One Taught Me How to Be a Man”
Shannon T.L. Kearns
Broadleaf Books
$25.99
No one was ever taught to be a man; more accurately, boy children receive the negative caveat that anything “girly” or “womanly” is “weak” and therefore “not manly.” This, Kearns insists, produces much negative, little positive, not a happy outcome for anyone. As a trans man, Kearns has seen both sides and presents here a more nuanced look at the problem of masculinity. For it is, no matter who one blames, an ongoing problem. It’s no surprise that repressed emotions let anger build, and that anger unleashed wreaks sorrow, not solution. The book is a plea to re-examine male friendships, revealing emotions, sharing with a spouse and ways of living masculinity. It’s not, after all, a one-size-fits-all life, a Procrustean bed into which all men must fit.
“He’s
to Die For”
Erin Dunn
Minotaur
$18
What’s a guy (an upscale, bespoke-tailored, Brit-accented, N.Y. Detective kind of guy) to do when he’s hopelessly smitten with a possible murder perp? Detective Rav Trivedi is the ris-
ing star in the NYPD homicide squad, though his posh, Ivy League aristocratic background make him the butt of jokes from the old guard. Now assigned lead on a high-profile murder case, he’s met — and fallen for — hot rock star Jack Vale, lead singer for the New Knickerbockers, who has every reason to have murdered an SOB top record executive. Well-plotted, fastaction detective work (interspersed with fastaction, oft-interrupted romantic moves), Rav tries valiantly to keep his eyes on the prize, his meteorically rising career, and off the amazingness of his main suspect. Summer reading with a bang!
“Automatic Noodle”
Annalee Newitz
MacMillan
$24.99
It’s 2064 (not so far in the future, post yet another human-inflicted war). Robot Staybehind is panicked, alone in a kitchen with mop and bucket, trying to keep the furious rain at bay. We are in San Francisco, post-war with the East, in an abandoned noodle shop usually “manned” by robots creating pick-up noodle orders for human masters. Now, without masters, (in short) a motley crew of deactivated robots revives and opens a noodle shop in this abandoned ghost kitchen. This synopsis may
intrigue, but doesn’t encompass the poignancy of this crew, imbued at least with cyber-souls, working together against high odds and hatepublicity to create the very best in noodle cuisine for their community. Never heavy-handed, Newitz (“Autonomous,” “Terraformers”) blends high sci-fi and lessons for today’s chaos.
“No Body No Crime”
Tess Sharpe
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
$29
A hit-and-run of a mystery, opening with a highway death before a Sweet Sixteen party, a cover-up killing — a myriad other incidents and plot twists till you’re “reeling and writhing and fainting in coils,” as another master scrivener once scribed. To name names, Sweet Sixteener Chloe Harper (the town’s named for her family) has a hidden girlfriend from the other side of the tracks (Mel Tillman, not invited to the party). When Chloe vanishes (becoming a deadly bowman in the wilderness) Mel spends years tracking her down, unaware a murderous local political clan, each named Richard (the Bag of Dicks) is also on the trail. Hidden diamonds and a recurring bevy of feral peacocks also feature in the mix. If you want exciting summer mayhem, grab this!
‘Garden State’ of mind: an interview with gay writer Daniel Meltz
Gay writer Daniel Meltz is a New Jersey native. So was the late novelist Philip Roth. In Meltz’s debut novel, “Rabbis of the Garden State” (Rattling Good Yarns Press, 2025), a book as full of religion and sexual frustration as any of Roth’s tomes, Meltz writes as if Roth himself passed him a queer torch. The story of Andy, his dysfunctional family (including mother Bea, older sister Naomi and kid brother Toby) and the powerful religious figures in their lives that unfortunately take advantage of the most vulnerable in their orbit. A combination queer coming-of-age tale crossed (or maybe Star of David-ed) with an intense courtroom drama, “Rabbis of the Garden State” also manages to make New Jersey sound like not such a nice place to visit, after all. Meltz generously made time for an interview in advance of the book’s publication.
Photo by Amy Dimun
Gregg Shapiro: Daniel, in 2025, you have two books being published: your first poetry collection, “It Wasn’t Easy to Reach You,” and a debut novel, “Rabbis of the Garden State.” How long did it take you to write the novel?
Daniel Meltz: I wrote the novel in 18 months in the ‘90s. I found an agent back then who got the book to an editor at St. Martin’s Press, but she left the industry, and that was that. I focused on other prose and poetry in the decades after that. I worked on revisions for about six months when Rattling Good Yarns [Press] expressed interest last year.
In chapter 31 of “Rabbis of the Garden State,” protagonist Andy talks about writing poetry, which made me wonder how much of Daniel is in Andy?
Andy’s definitely got a lot of me in him. Andy’s an almost anagram for Danny, after all, which was my name when I was a kid. But Andy’s got a lot more chutzpah than I had. I would never have gotten an F in deportment like Andy gets. [laughs] I was a goody two-shoes. My partner Mike told me that in the book’s earlier incarnation, Andy was too passive, and Mike was right. I gave him a temper and lots of backtalk.
“Rabbis of the Garden State” spans an 11-year period, from 1966 to 1977, and is bursting with references to TV shows, commercials, movies and music from the time. Would you consider yourself to be a product of the pop culture of the era and that it also influenced your writing?
Yes! Pop culture was my whole environment, my default babysitter, my educational swampland while growing up. I was reading novelizations of TV shows like “Gilligan’s Island” and “Get Smart” long before I graduated to Dickens and Proust. It took me a long time to excise the brain rot of the ‘60s, but I wasn’t completely successful. And anyway, a lot of that pop culture was full of life and very funny. Not rot at all.
Speaking of movies, “Rabbis of the Garden State” is quite cinematic, including a reference to Rabbi Landy as being a “handsome 6-foot movie-star rabbi.” If there was a movie version of the novel, who do you envision as Rabbi Landy? Andy? Andy’s mom Bea? Rabbi Loobling?
Mark Eydelshteyn, who played the rich Russian brat in “Anora,” might make a good Andy in the later parts of the book. Bradley Cooper or Adrien Brody for Rabbi Landy. Bea, maybe Carey Mulligan. Rabbi Loobling, I think Timothée Chalamet.
You have an ear for dialects and dialogue. To what do you attribute that?
I love the great dialogue of old Hollywood. I love dialogue-heavy brainiac writers like Iris Murdoch and Philip Roth. I love how in real-life dialogue, people aren’t always listening to each other so that in a stream of back-and-forth, you can hear two completely different discussions going on, which I like to capture in my writing. I also have what my partner Mike calls a 1940s New York accent which makes me chew very deliberately on words, making it all very conscious. I grew up in Jersey yeshivas with all these old-time Jews talking like Myron Cohen. I love the English language, and I also love creative cursers like Mrs. Garr [Georgie’s mother].
You also have an extensive knowledge of Judaica. Did you study to be a rabbi?
I attended yeshiva from 1966 to 1974, most of grammar school and all of high school. For a few minutes, I thought of becoming a rabbi, but then I remembered I was gay. Not an option in 1974.
You mention “rabbinical love slaves” in chapter 24, and as it turns out, Andy’s mother, Bea, is not the only one obsessed with a Rabbi (Landy), as Andy shares his mother’s passion for the closeted Rabbi Loobling. Do you think this similarity is one of the reasons that Andy and Bea have such an antagonistic relationship?
Continued on page 130
That’s a satisfying observation, Gregg. I wouldn’t have thought of that, but it’s totally there. They don’t want to acknowledge in the other that which is so obvious in themselves. Both characters have father issues, and rabbis are so fatherly. These two rabbis, anyway. I don’t think the parallel is completely conscious in either of them, but Andy makes a deliberate effort to avoid talking about Rabbi Loobling with his mother because she is intrusive and horny and might try to claim the Talmud teacher for herself.
Andy’s childhood friend Georgie Garr tells him that his father said that “Hitler shoulda killed all the Jews.” With that in mind, “Rabbis of the Garden State” is being published at a time when there has been a measurable rise in antisemitism. Please say something about writing a novel with Jewish themes at this time in history.
I like that the book doesn’t traffic in the grubby stereotype of the money-hungry Jew of a lot of literature and movies. This Jewish family is pretty impoverished. I hope that makes the Judaism kind of secondary and the family more relatable to non-Jews. Everybody knows what it’s like to be madly in love with someone who’s no good for you, regardless of your faith. People have told me that Jewish literature is a hard sell, particularly in this environment. I would love to have as many people read the book as possible. If in the reading they see how corrosive Georgie’s stupidity is, how hurtful and personal, that’s a good thing. After that incident in the book, Andy has nothing more to do with Georgie.
In the latter part of the novel, it unexpectedly turns into a courtroom drama. Was that your intention from the start? If not, how did that develop?
Yes, that was my intention from the start. In an earlier version, that part of the book was simply a transcript of the trial, but my publisher, Ian Henzel of Rattling Good Yarns Press, thought that was a mistake because it lost
Andy’s first-person point of view. He was so right! I took a long time rethinking that, including finding a way to give Andy an active role in the courtroom. It was wonderfully fun to figure that out because all the pieces of that puzzle were in the story already. For example, in part one of the book, Andy discovers a shocking transcript of his mother’s therapy sessions with Rabbi Landy, who’s also a student doctor of psychoanalysis. I figured out how to reuse that scandalous discovery later on in the trial.
In your acknowledgments, you mention gay writer Felice Picano, who passed away in mid-March. Can you please say a few words about Felice?
Felice! I am brokenhearted! I met him a couple of years ago when we were on the same bill at a KGB reading in Kathleen Warnock’s “Drunken! Careening! Writers” series on East Fourth Street. I was reading poetry, had just found out that I was getting my first book of poems published, and out of nowhere, Felice came up to me after the reading and said, “I want to blurb you.” So generous! He didn’t know me. We stayed in touch. He invited me to read with him at The LGBTQ+ Center in the Village. When I told him about “Rabbis of the Garden State,” he said he wanted to blurb me again and gave me such a zing of a quote … plus told me about a hot rabbi with whom he’d had an affair in his youth. I read a lot of his books in this period and loved them all. So fluent, raunchy, groundbreaking, startling. He was so kind, hilarious, welcoming and connected. Knew everybody. And if we were at a gathering with any of these luminaries, he never hesitated to introduce me: “Come on. Let’s go say hello to Brad Gooch.”
Have you started working on or thinking about your next writing project?
Yes. I worked for many years with blind and deaf young people and am thinking about a novel that Venn-diagrams those worlds.
Adath Jeshurun Congregation 10500 Hillside Lane W. • Minnetonka (952) 545-2424 www.adathjeshurun.org
Beth El Synagogue 5225 Barry St. W. • St. Louis Park (952) 873-7300 www.bethelsynagogue.org
Beth Jacob Congregation 1179 Victoria Curve • Mendota Heights (651) 452-2226 www.beth-jacob.org
Temple Israel 2324 Emerson Ave. S. • Minneapolis (612) 377-8680 www.templeisrael.com
Rd. Minneapolis
Temple of Aaron 616 S. Mississippi River Rd. • St. Paul (651) 698-8874 www.templeofaaron.org
‘The Horseman’s Tale’: A Tale of Self-acceptance And Advocacy For Others
Self-acceptance is not something that comes easily, especially when there is stigma, shame and negative societal views surrounding your identity. For LGBTQ+ people, our identities are always a topic of debate and stigma, making self-acceptance a difficult journey.
Whether it’s religion, government or family, there’s a cause for self-repression making us feel like our identities are wrong and should be hidden. LGBTQ+ people always need to advocate for ourselves, but having allies advocating with us makes it stronger.
Tom Equels explores struggles faced by many people today, including self-repression of LGBTQ+ identities, mental health and civil rights in his debut novel “The Horseman’s Tale.” The story, set in the 1960s, follows the main character, Jake Montgomery, a bisexual man and veteran, who learns to embrace his authentic self in a world demanding silence.
Equels, a Vietnam veteran and renowned civil rights attorney, started writing the book after a critical horse-riding accident in 2022. He was inspired by his experience watching the “State of Hate” special on CNN, a program about resurgences of discrimination and prejudice, and seeing a commercial about the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
Although Equels wasn’t in the Marine Corps, this commercial became the inspiration behind the book. The commercial discussed compensation and claims for people stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 1950s through 1980s due to water contamination that may have caused cancer, death and birth defects.
“I sort of start the book out with this retired Marine Corps veteran sitting in his recliner having a whiskey and that's when he realizes for the first time that his child who died 40 something years earlier from severe birth defects and his wife who died a year or so before from liver cancer probably died because of this water contamination at Camp Lejeune, and he blows up,” Equels says.
Jake, the protagonist, goes through his selfacceptance journey following his relationship with a guy and a girl at the stable where he worked. After separating during his military career, they reconnected in the 1980s during the AIDS pandemic, being among the first ones affected in Paris. He comes to realize what he’s given up trying to live his life in the way he was expected to.
“Part of this story is about the effects of when you suppress your true self in order to comply with parental, societal, cultural, religious and legal requirements. There's a part of
Photo by Stunning Steeds
you that can get lost, and that act of suppression, the fact that you have to hide who you are… it creates a psychological imbalance,” Equels says.
As LGBTQ+ identities are continuously targeted, it’s important for us to not only stand up but also to seek support from allies and communities around us. He says one example of this is the 2016 rally and motorcycle memorial procession he helped organize in honor of the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting. Those that came together were not just gay, not just liberal, but people of all backgrounds coming together to stand up for what’s right.
The book is meant to send a message of hope but also a warning that a failure to act now will result in reversion, which is bad for everyone but especially those traditionally victimized, Equels says.
“These are the kinds of things that if you just say, ‘Oh, you can't do this or this is wrong,’ people can reject it, but if they read a story and they can connect and empathize with the characters and what they're going through, maybe they see it differently,” Equels says.
The book is not only meant for people to learn to be accepting of others, but first and foremost to accept themselves, Equels says. Who we are is an evolving, fluid thing that we need to learn to identify, accept and respect.
“My true nature when I was 15 is not the same as when I was 25, and God knows it's not the same as when I'm 73,” Equels says. “Respect the fact that others differ and are divergent from who we are, but more importantly, respect the fact that the integrity of who we are requires paramount respect … My destiny is based upon who I am, who I truly am. When you accept that, your life changes.”
Tom Equels’ debut novel, “The Horseman’s Tale,” is available everywhere books are sold. For more information, visit thehorsemanstale. com or follow Tom on social media. You can find him @Author.Tom. Equels (on Facebook), @TomEquels (on Instagram) or @Tom-Equels (on LinkedIn).
Photos courtesy of Arden Izzo on behalf of Tom Equels
Revival and Rejuvenation: The 10-Year Restoration of a Minneapolis Mansion
Nestled in the charming Minneapolis neighborhood of Loring Park is an equally charming mansion. Built in 1889, the house had changed hands a fair number of times, and in the fall of 2013, a brochure was displayed throughout the community stating that the property was once again up for sale. On a stroll through the neighborhood, Dr. Paul Mittelstadt happened to come across one of these brochures. He immediately fell in love with the 6,000 square foot home. By December 2013, the wonderful residence was his, and he was eager to begin fixing the property up.
The mansion had been built in 1889 for a famous realtor and his wife, Henry and Anna Ladd. Without children, the Ladd family sold the property to a business partner. The new owners had no children of their own but had adopted a child in 1920. Together, they lived in the Loring Park mansion before they lost it in the Great Depression in 1938. Mittelstadt shares his experience meeting the grandchildren of the adoptive child soon after he purchased the property.
Photo courtesy of Paul Mittelstadt
“That child had three children, three biological children,” Mittelstadt says. “He must have been quite a character because his grandchildren and two of his children stopped by, maybe eight years ago, to see the house. They’d never been in the house. But they told me the history. They told me which house or which room on the third floor was his bedroom.”
Seemingly an indicator of the economic hardship prevalent in those times, the bedroom in question was a small room. It was about the size of a large closet, according to Mittelstadt, with a small balcony that one could step out onto.
The mansion next became a business college in 1938. Although he is unsure about the exact duration of time that the mansion had been a business college, Mittelstadt shares that some of his friends’ parents had once attended the college back in its days of operation.
After the business college closed, the mansion became a group home for individuals with mental illness. This transition occurred in 1970, and once the group home closed its doors, the property fell into the hands of Mittelstadt.
Upon gaining ownership of the mansion, Mittelstadt got to work on planning its restoration. This process was not without its difficulties. Not only was the mansion being reviewed for historical preservation by the city, but there was also work to be done on both the interior and exterior of the house.
Before any work could be started, the house was stuck in a waiting period wherein the city’s historical team wanted to review the house and all its details. Mittelstadt did his best to work around this obstacle by using this time to look for people to help in the restoration process. The first individual who was to begin the renovation process sadly passed away the winter before. Then, the next person hired had to back out due to a terminal diagnosis. On his third attempt to find someone to help restore the property, Mittelstadt ended up going with Platinum Remodeling for the interior of the house and Goodrich Construction for the exterior.
Meanwhile, the battle with the city’s historical team was still ongoing. It had already been a year since it first started.
“They started the process … in March of 2014 to get all the approvals, but this man just kept getting in the way with all his demands. So, I finally, finally got a hold of an attorney,” Mittelstadt says. “We were ready to … sue him because he’d been such an obstructionist with all his detail. Well, the day before I was ready to sue him, I made a call to the department head of the permit society … for the City of Minneapolis. He was a gay man. He was very interested in our house, my house in particular. And he was not aware that we were having this much difficulty. We had all our permits the next day.”
Once the permits were acquired, the restoration was fully underway. Because of the age of the house, many things had to be replaced. This included all the electrical wiring and plumbing, as well as the coal fireplace, which had to be converted to gas.
Despite all the difficulties and the amount of time that it required, there was much to adore about the home. All the woodwork was kept nearly intact. Further, there was a wonderful hidden gem found during the renovation process. On the third floor of the home, there was a hidden ballroom that had been converted into two bedrooms and an office. Mittelstadt and his team decided to restore it to its original state upon this discovery.
Just over a decade later, the Loring Park mansion is almost completely restored. With the last touches being a few weeks out, Mittelstadt is ready to finally call his home complete.
“It’s a good project to take on, but I never realized it would take 10 years. … if I had an unlimited amount of funds, it wouldn’t take us so long,” Mittelstadt says. “But, you know, it’s just, part of it’s money, but part of it is how much renovation do you want to go into? … I would not do it again. It’s a beautiful house. It’s fun to entertain. Fun to entertain.”
With all the love and work, along with the history and charm, the house is indeed very beautiful inside and out. Almost fully restored, the gorgeous mansion now stands on a land full of hostas in the quaint and charming neighborhood of Loring Park.
BY RANDY STERN
One Cool Sedan
Over the years, we have lamented how the number of sedans has dwindled to only a few models. The acceptance of the SUV as a primary form of automotive transport is the main reason for this.
The SUV has some advantages. You can step right into your seat without bending up or down. It carries just as much — if not more — than a station wagon from the 1990s. You have a better field of vision on the road, especially when it comes to dealing with traffic. You can also get electrified drivelines, the latest driver assistance technology and so forth in them now.
Yet, some of us cannot accept the fact that SUVs are convenient. We want sedans because they get better fuel economy than SUVs, among other reasons. They are also down-to-earth and easier to park, and frankly, some of us don’t want all that space to begin with.
Luckily for us, Kia is still banking on sedans as a part of their overall vehicle strategy. Their K5 remains competitive in the mid-size class. Yet, there are more players currently in the smaller “compact sedan” class for them to compete in.
To play in the compact sedan space, they replaced the Forte with the new 2025 K4. Not only did they create an all-new sedan, they made it the most compelling vehicle in its class.
The first thing you will notice is how future-forward the design of the K4 is. Kia calls this “Opposites United.” It is meant to create angles and shapes that were meant for concept cars by fusing them into a production model.
The angles alone will blow your mind. From the front end with its headlamp and LED running light/turn signal signature to that C pillar glass and the fastback-like roofline, the K4 draws your attention and solicits your response to it. The LED taillights also add to the flair of this stylish and geometric compact sedan.
Then there are the exterior details. You open the rear doors from near the pillar. The trunk opening is small, but effective. To top it all off, our GT-Line tester’s 18-inch alloy wheels round off this intriguing and attractive exterior design. In other words, the K4 was to stand out in a crowd unapologetically.
The same geometric themes are also seen inside. At its core, the introduction of Kia’s flat panel dashboard is part of the K4’s elevation
Photos by Randy Stern
within the compact sedan class. The panel includes a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster with analog-like dials, a small climate control touchscreen and a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen. Together, they serve as the K4’s focal point for the driver.
Everything else also falls into Kia’s latest design language. The ignition button is on the console. All other switches and buttons are tactile. There is even a real and tactile gear lever for the transmission. The steering wheel has both a flat bottom and a flat top, along with a stand-out two-tone design.
This GT-Line tester has an upgraded Premium Package that adds a Harman/Kardon Premium Audio System and a two-tone SynTex faux leather upholstery. Front seat space is OK. Taller people may want to play around with the seat adjustments to balance getting comfortable and situated behind the wheel.
Rear seat headroom is quite good, and legroom is about average. You have 14.6 cubic feet of trunk space. The trunk lid itself is short, but it opens up to the bumper.
Kia offers two engines for the 2025 K4 sedan. Our GT-Line tester came with the standard 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. It puts down 147 horsepower and 132 pound-feet of torque. An Intelligent Variable Transmission (read: CVT) sends power to the front wheels. This may not sound impressive, but this motor punches above its weight. On-ramp and passing maneuvers were sprightly, as was the acceleration.
In terms of fuel economy, we achieved an average of 32 mpg in mixed city and highway driving. Continued
The driving experience in the K4 could be best described as agile. Kia did not create a run-of-the-mill compact sedan. It has a sporty flair. Cornering and evasive maneuvers are done with confidence. The ride quality seems a bit firm, but very smooth on the best pieces of roadway. Rougher patches are not a problem, as the suspension system absorbs them just fine.
It also comes down to a quick and responsive steering system. Tight maneuvers are done with ease. On the highway, the system’s on-center feel felt a bit soft. That can be fixed with a press of a couple of buttons. One is to enable the Lane Keeping Assist. The other is the Drive Mode button, putting the K4 into Sport mode. Either way, you should be locked in the lane on longer journeys.
The brakes are quite good with solid pedal feel and response. We also experienced good stops in normal and panic situations. Kia also equips their K4 models with a high level of driver assistance features, including the Highway Driving Assist that kicks in when you press the cruise control button. In turn, the K4 earned the Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety — a very important piece of information when it comes to selecting a vehicle for safety’s sake.
For 2025, you have five K4 trim levels to choose from, starting from $21,990. This K4 GT-Line tester arrived with a sticker price of $28,345. Just in case you want more performance, the GT-Line model is also available with a 190-horsepower turbocharged engine.
A great value that looks sharp and engaging: that’s how we sum up the 2025 Kia K4. It is one of those vehicles that you cannot stop looking back at when you head into the park for your local Pride festival. After all, the 2025 Kia K4 is one cool sedan.
Get Lucky, St ay PrEP
Episode 14
Last year, I joined a musical theater ensemble. The advertisement said “no talent required.” Perfect fit … because I have no talent. I’ve loved musicals and show tunes since I was a little girl. And I’ve believed every lie about life that they’ve peddled. The typical arc of a musical is:
You have a big dream, often unrealistic. Become a star (“Gypsy”). Scam an entire town (“The Music Man”). Kill the judge who lusted after your wife (“Sweeney Todd”). Become a nun (“Sound of Music”).
Run into trouble/obstacles in pursuing your dream. In many cases, the trouble relates to falling in love with an inconvenient person. Someone who does not necessarily share your big dream. Even “Jesus Christ Superstar” managed to shove a love story into an already overheated plot.
You have to make a choice between pursuing your dream or getting derailed by your distraction. Meet up with the Jets to fight the Sharks or go on that date with Maria?
Suffer the consequences if you choose the wrong path. Fight against unionizing the pajama factory and lose Doris Day’s affection in the process.
Learn your lesson and get rewarded with eternal love. (“Grease.” “Guys and Dolls.”) Or don’t learn your lesson and be damned forever. (“Camelot.” “Cabaret.”)
I always assumed that my life would play out like a musical. So, I’ve studied show tunes the way a rabbi studies the Torah. I knew these songs contained the secret to living a happy, fulfilling life. In almost every moment of my life, whether joyful or tragic, I’ve been able to pluck a tune from the American Musical canon to provide myself comfort, hope and expression of feelings I don’t understand.
If we were following the musical arc of my life, my big dream would be to stop the world in its tracks each time I sang. My obstacle in achieving this dream would be that I’m tone deaf and can’t dance because I literally don’t know my right from my left. So, while I’ve had plenty of reasons to belt out a show tune at key moments of my life, I’ve been kept silent, mainly from friends covering my mouth so they didn’t have to suffer through my caterwauling.
How many times did I want to stop a lover from leaving me by scream-
singing “And I Am Telling You” from “Dreamgirls,” only to realize that my singing would only make her escape even more quickly. Or to lift my glass at a night out with friends to sing “Cabaret” without fear they would rather abandon me to the Nazis than let me finish the song?
At my wedding, I made the brave choice to sing a showtune during my vows! Much to my spouse’s surprise — and chagrin — I sang “Something Good” to her from “The Sound of Music.” For the first time in my life, I felt confident that no one would walk out of the room when I was singing. And no one did walk out. But no one asked for an encore either.
Last year, when I registered for the musical theater ensemble, I suspected that the “no talent required” promise was just an empty marketing pitch and that I’d either be hauled off stage with a hook or given a behind the stage role — managing the wigs or tidying up the diva’s dressing room after she trashes it in a fit of pique.
Instead, I was handed sheet music in my first class, and no one seemed bothered that I was the only person in the ensemble who could neither identify the notes on the page nor sing them. Our director solved the problem by planting me next to a woman with a very good voice and telling me to parrot the notes she sang. It worked. Kind of. She has such a strong voice that it drowns out mine, which calmed my nerves and helped me focus on the pure joy of the experience.
Each 16-week session ends in a performance showcase. After my first showcase, my spouse proclaimed with great pride that I was not the worst performer on stage. High praise!
Last month, during a theater field trip with the ensemble to NYC, one of the best performers of the troop told me that she was blown away by how much I’ve improved since I started. It made me weep … which then led me to burst out into an off-key rendition of “Broadway Baby,” and was quickly joined by the rest of the ensemble because I haven’t improved that much.
When I was younger, Pride month meant parties, sloppy make-out sessions and hangovers. Now, in my dotage, Pride means pursuing what makes me happy without fear or shame. I hope you all join me in merrily skipping through June, singing a happy tune with no care for who it might offend.
Harrisburg … Why? And for 50 years.
The Rotunda of the Pennsylvania State Capitol is elegantly elaborate — marble, brass, bronze, statues, chandeliers. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.
In my life, I’ve been to more than 90 countries around the world, and to this day, my least favorite place on Earth remains Harrisburg, Penn. And yet, here I am — on deadline, riding Amtrak to Harrisburg. Why? History calls.
To understand how I first ended up in Harrisburg in 1974, you need to know a bit of my backstory. If you’re not familiar, here’s the short version:
I was 18 in 1969 and inside the Stonewall Inn the night it was raided. I’m the guy who wrote “Tomorrow Night Stonewall” on the street. I was a member of New York’s Gay Liberation Front, and I launched a campaign against the TV networks, disrupting live national broadcasts — including the ”CBS Evening News” with a guy named Walter Cronkite.
So, how did interrupting “CBS Evening News” in New York lead me to Harrisburg, Penn.?
After that disruption, for the first time ever, TV talk shows began inviting a few of us who were openly LGBTQ+ onto their programs. That campaign cracked open the media closet and gave us a platform to tell our stories. Feeling bold, I wrote to the governor of Pennsylvania at the time, Milton Shapp, asking for a meeting. To my shock, he said yes. This was during a time when no U.S. governor had ever met with a gay activist. They usually ran the other way.
But Shapp didn’t. He became the first sitting governor to meet with an openly gay activist. At our meeting, he asked what he could do for me. I gave him everything I could think of:
“You can issue an executive order banning discrimination against the LGBT community in state employment. You can create a commission to investigate the issues we face. And how about declaring Gay Pride Day
in Pennsylvania?”
He smiled, walked me to the door, and said, “Caught you on the Cronkite show.”
That was the beginning of discovering an ally — Gov. Milton Shapp, the first in the nation.
On April 23, 1975, Shapp did issue that executive order banning discrimination against the LGBT community in state hiring — the first of its kind in the U.S. We went on to establish the Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorities, the first official state commission to examine LGBTQ+ issues, and even appointed LGBTQ+ liaisons in various state departments, another national first. And yes, he issued that Gay Pride proclamation too.
Between our meeting in 1974 and the executive order in 1975, there were dozens of phone calls, strategy sessions and lobbying efforts. Not one state representative or senator would stand with us. Most kicked me out of their offices — and not very politely.
On the 50th anniversary of that executive order, I’ll be standing in that elegant Capitol Rotunda, delivering the keynote address to commemorate those groundbreaking achievements. And guess what? Two of the speakers will be out state representatives. The audience will be filled with state leaders — all proudly showing their support for our community.
Shapp was my political mentor. He taught me how to use the system to create change. And tomorrow, I’ll be speaking not just for myself, but for both of us.
Governor — you truly made history.
Mark Segal is an American journalist who has won numerous journalism awards for his column “Mark My Words,” including best column by The National Newspaper Association, Suburban Newspaper Association and The Society of Professional Journalists.
The Quiet Dance
In the stillness of the room, two hearts find their rhythm, a pulse that rises like the tide, steady and unspoken.
Their bodies draw closer, the air thick with the warmth of skin, a quiet heat that rises between them, like the soft hum of a summer evening.
Hands move, not in haste, but with the grace of a question, fingers tracing the contours of each other, mapping the softness of a collarbone, the curve of a jaw, the tender edge of a neck.
Each touch is an invitation, an exploration, as though their skin is a foreign landscape, familiar yet unknown.
Their eyes meet, and in that gaze, the world outside fades, leaving only the weight of what passes between them.
It is not an ask for permission, but a quiet understanding, a silent agreement that lingers, like the soft sigh of a breeze before it turns into wind.
A breath held, then released. Doubt comes, but only briefly— a shadow that is swallowed by trust, the steady beat of their hearts a silent affirmation that this moment is theirs.
Fingers glide over the smooth terrain of skin, leaving trails of warmth, as though each fingertip writes its own story on the surface of the other’s body.
The air around them thickens, not with words, but with the quiet hum of shared breath, the sound of skin brushing skin, of hearts beating faster, then slower, a rhythm both urgent and patient.
There is no rush. They move like water, flowing into each other, slipping in and out of spaces, where touch lingers just long enough to leave an imprint.
Each movement, a conversation; each pause, a deeper understanding.
This is not an act, but an intimate exchange, a slow unfolding, where each touch is a promise, each breath a bond sealed without words. Their bodies speak in ways their mouths cannot, communicating what is felt in the depths of their beings, an unspoken language of need and care.
Two men, together in the quiet space where nothing else matters, where there are no barriers, no distance between them— only the truth of being seen, of surrendering, of becoming whole together, in the delicate, trusting dance of intimacy.
Community Connection brings visibility to local LGBTQ-friendly non-profit organizations. To reserve your listing in Community Connection, email advertising@lavendermagazine. com.
ANIMAL RESCUE
Second Chance Animal Rescue
Dedicated to rescuing, fostering, caring for, and adopting out dogs and cats into forever homes.
P.O. Box 10533 White Bear Lake, MN 55110 (651) 771-5662 www.secondchancerescue.org
BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS
Quorum
Minnesota's LGBTQ+ and Allied Chamber of Commerce working to build, connect, and strengthen for a diverse business community. 2446 University Ave. W., Ste 112 St. Paul, MN 55114 (612) 460-8153 www.twincitiesquorum.com
ENVIRONMENT
The Nature Conservancy
TNC is an environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature thrive.
1101 W. River Pkwy., Ste. 200 Minneapolis, MN 55415-1291 (612) 331-0700 minnesota@tnc.org www.nature.org/minnesota
EVENT VENUES
Landmark Center
A classic venue, with a grand cortile and beautiful courtrooms, accommodates celebrations of all sizes.
75 W. 5th St. St. Paul, MN 55102 (651) 292-3228 www.landmarkcenter.org
GRANTMAKERS/FUNDERS
PFund Foundation
PFund is the LGBTQ+ community foundation that provides grants to students and grants to non-profits. PO Box 3640 Minneapolis, MN 55403 (612) 870-1806 www.pfundfoundation.org
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Aliveness Project
Community Center for individuals living with HIV/AIDS – on-site meals, food shelf, and supportive service.
Radio K is the award-winning studentrun radio station of the University of Minnesota.
330 21st. Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612) 625-3500 www.radiok.org
COMMUNITY CONNECTION
MUSEUM
Bell Museum, University of Minnesota
Discover Minnesota’s rich natural history through engaging exhibits, wildlife dioramas, and an exciting planetarium experience!
2088 Larpenteur Ave. W., St. Paul, MN 55113 (612) 626-9660 bellinfo@umn.edu www.bellmuseum.umn.edu
Minnesota Historical Society
Create your own adventure at MNHS historic sites and museums around Minnesota. www.mnhs.org
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Enjoy masterpieces from all over the world & every period of human history. Free admission daily!
2400 3rd Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55404 (612) 870-3000 www.artsmia.org
PERFORMING ARTS
Children’s Theatre Company
Children’s Theatre Company excites the imagination with world-class family-friendly theatre for kids, teens, and adults.
2400 3rd Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55404 (612) 874-0400 www.childrenstheatre.org
Guthrie Theater
Open to the public year-round, the Guthrie produces classic and contemporary plays on three stages. 818 S. 2nd St. Minneapolis, MN 55415 (612) 377-2224 www.guthrietheater.org
Minnesota Opera
World-class opera draws you into a synthesis of beauty; breathtaking music, stunning costumes & extraordinary sets. Performances at the Ordway Music Theater - 345 Washington St. St. Paul, MN 55102 (612) 333-6669 www.mnopera.org
Minnesota Orchestra
Led by Music Director Designate Thomas Søndergård, the Minnesota Orchestra, one of America’s leading symphony orchestras. 1111 Nicollet Mall Minneapolis, MN 55403 (612) 371-5656, (800) 292-4141 www.minnesotaorchestra.org
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts
Leading performing arts center with two stages presenting Broadway musicals, concerts & educational programs that enrich diverse audiences.
345 Washington St. St. Paul, MN 55102 (651) 224-4222 info@ordway.org www.ordway.org
Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus
An award-winning chorus building community through music and offers entertainment worth coming out for! 1430 W. 28th St., Ste. B Minneapolis, MN 55408 (612) 339-SONG (7664) chorus@tcgmc.org www.tcgmc.org
RELIGIOUS & SPIRITUAL
All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church
A welcoming, inclusive, safe place to explore and discover God’s love for ALL God’s children.
3100 Park Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55407 (612) 824-2673 www.agcmcc.org
Many Hearts, One Song; Many Hands, One Church. Find us on Facebook and Twitter. 1900 Nicollet Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55403 (612) 871-7400 www.plymouth.org
St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ
We are an Open & Affirming, Progressive Christian Community. Real Church. Real People. Real Life. 2129 Commonwealth Ave. St. Paul, MN 55108 (651) 646-7173 www.sapucc.org
St. Philip's Lutheran Church
We invite and welcome those of every spiritual background, ethnicity, gender orientation, or economic situation. 6180 Hwy 65 Fridley, MN 55432 (763) 571-1500 www.splcmn.org
University Baptist Church
Creating safe and inclusive spaces for 175 years, UBC stands proudly with our LGBTQ+ family. 1219 University Ave. SE Minneapolis, MN 55414 (612) 331-1768 www.ubcmn.org
Westminster Presbyterian Church
An open and affirming congregation, welcoming persons of all sexual orientations, gender expressions and identities. 1200 Marquette Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55403 (612) 332-3421 www.westminstermpls.org
SENIOR LIVING
Lyngblomsten Community Services
Empowering older adults to live well at home through caregiver support, memory-loss enrichment, & wellness education.
1415 Almond Ave. St. Paul, MN 55108 (651) 632-5330 www.Lyngblomsten.org/CServices
Senior Community Services
Providing non-medical services that meet the changing needs of older adults & support their caregivers.
Fostering meaningful connections for older adults for 50+ years. Offering quick drop-in chat line, phone & visiting companionship services.
2550 University Ave. W., Ste. 260-S St. Paul, MN 55114 (612) 721-1400
www.friendsco.org
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota
Serving all Minnesotans with individualized services that promote full and abundant lives.
lssmn.org | (651) 642-5990 | (800) 582-5260
Foster Care and Adoption | chlss.org | (651) 646.7771
PICS (Partners in Community Supports) | (651) 967-5060
Pooled Trust | (888) 806-6844
Supported Decision-Making | (888) 806-6844
TRAVEL DESTINATIONS
Westopolis
Minnesota’s Sweet Spot! St. Louis Park & Golden Valley offer exceptional dining, attractions, shopping, hotels and event space.
1660 Hwy 100 S., Ste. 501 St. Louis Park, MN 55416 (952) 426-4047
www.westopolis.org
THE NETWORK
Failed Hero Complex If You’re Not Angry, Rejoice!
when i was a little kid i truly believed that one day something miraculously wonderful would happen to change my life in a way that i could ensure that everyone i knew would have their needs met and be taken care of.
as a little kid i envisioned a communal home before i could spell communal. i envisioned plane trips around the world with 30 or more of my closest friends, rescuing animals, reviving deserts, cleaning oceans. I saw suffering alleviated, if not eliminated.
i saw dreams made real.
i believed willy wonka. if it could happen for charlie, it could happen for me. diff’rent strokes proved it further.
so mad at myself for believing. So angry it’s never come true. So ashamed of failing to live up to my expectations.
I hate to see my friends suffer. I hate that my loved ones hurt. Hate the idea that anyone’s needs go unmet, and i can do little about it.
hate that i can’t save us.
I feel a lot of Love right now. I tingle with it. My body entire. I feel a lot of Love. For the haters and the pessimists and the realists I feel a lot of Love
For the politicians and the activists and the revolutionaries I feel nothing but Love.
I had this crazy dream just now: After travelling through basements and dungeons and subways through caves and caverns after resisting evil and misinterpretation We were all transformed by magic and mollusks Transferred Disguised in a rainstorm to a different world
A world transposed atop the burnt-out husk of this one.
And I wake from this crazy dream feeling a lot of Love for everyone
For the bitchers and moaners the exclusive and the loners
