O&AN | September 2018 by Out & About Nashville

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SEPTEMBER 2018

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SEPTEMBER 2018

OUTstanding:

ADMISSION: DATE: TIME: LOCATION:

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A Seminar Exploring Gender & Sexual Diversity

On October 13, the Tennessee Equality Project will host a revival of UTK’s OUTstanding LGBTQ+ Conference at Strong Hall from 8:30am-5:00pm. The OUTstanding Conference was created in 2011 to explore the intersectional diversity within the LGBTQ+ community, and to educate and increase compassion within the University of Tennessee, the greater Knoxville community and beyond. Subjects for exploration at this 2018 conference will include education, legal policy and culture as they relate to gender expression, class, race, gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, belief, spirituality and religion in eastern Tennessee. OUTstanding aims to broaden minds, serve as a catalyst for social justice, ignite open and honest discussions, and ultimately improve the University

of Tennessee and the larger region’s climate for LGBTQ people. This year’s speakers will include representatives from Vanderbilt’s gender clinic, Children’s Hospital, the legal community, and GLSEN, among others. The conference is free and open to the public, with morning and afternoon snacks provided. It is open to students, faculty, staff and community members from all backgrounds and identities. Attendance is free, but registration will be required to ensure adequate seating and food/drink. If you are a business or organization that wants to donate to the conference, please e-mail outstandingutk@gmail.com. More information regarding the schedule of speakers and registration can be found on Facebook [facebook.com/outstandingutk].

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20 09.18

CONTENTS 8

JOE WOOLLEY NAMED LGBT CHAMBERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NEW PRESIDENT

TEP FOCUSES ON PREEMPTION LAWS AND NON-DISCRIMINATION

NASHVILLE GRIZZLIES GEAR UP FOR A NEW SEASON

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NASHVILLE’S LGBT CHAMBER HAS A FAMILIAR NEW PRESIDENT JOE WOOLLEY LOOKS BACK, AND FORWARD, ENTERING NEW ROLE JAMES GRADY

In August, Nashville’s LGBT Chamber announced that it had selected its next CEO, as Lisa Howe departs the role. Joe Woolley, a recent past-president of the Chamber is taking the reins and will be returning to help the organization continue down the path set by a board he recently led. I caught up with Joe shortly after the announcement, and we discussed his past involvement in Nashville’s LGBT community, what he’s most proud of in his previous leadership of the Chamber, and the vision for the future he presented to the committee that selected him as the new CEO of the organization. Prior to working with the Chamber, Woolley got his feet wet in local advocacy in the founding of the Tennessee Equality Project. “From there,” he added, “I’ve always been very active, whether it’s in political endorsements of LGBT candidates or just organizing and helping the community out. We are involved in HRC, of course Victory Fund…” “When I was asked to be on the Chamber and the Chamber Board,” he said, laughing, “I didn’t realize I was actually being asked to be on the Chamber Board. I didn’t have a lot of experience or work with it, and I just dove in and expected a lot from an organization that I didn’t really know about. I really pushed us to go higher. Maybe a little too hard…” “I think that is one of my things that I learned with Lisa,” he said, expanding on this. “I needed to respect how far they had already come and that I needed to get her the training and bring in the experience and direction to help us chart the path...” Woolley joined the board in 2014, serving as marketing chair, and then became vice president in 2015, before serving as president for 2016 and 2017. “My first big change that I pushed through,” he said, “was rebranding Taste, developing Taste into what it is now, which is just a pure tasting and networking event...” Woolley views organizational changes as one of the ways he had the most impact on the Chamber and its operations. Finding Howe and other leaders overwhelmed by the sheer volume of email and other communications, Woolley let the implementation of Basecamp, a project management software that gave the “a clear, concise way to communicate and work on projects as a big organization, where committees are doing so much work, allowing the CEO and other leaders to coordinate work without tripping over one another.” Woolley also spearheaded the update of the membership directory and website. When he came on board, he found that the membership database wasn’t editable by users and so all change requests and additions filtered through Howe as a middle man, leading to long delays for updates. “It might be months before your membership status showed up or you were able to point to the website and say I’m a member.” Woolley led the implementation of ChamberMaster, another project management tool, to alleviate these issues. When asked about growth opportunities for the Chamber and his vision for the future, Woolley was quick to point out,

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SEPTEMBER 2018

“Again the board makes the decision in the direction for the organization and the CEO implements so where they choose to go is where I will take it.” “However,” he continued, “there are many possible growth areas that I kind of identified as I pitched to the board…” One of the key places Woolley intends to stay the course is in seeking more diversity on the Chamber. “As president, I stood on stage with the seven other past white gay men that have led the Chamber and fully realized how that looked and have since that point non-stop pushed for diversity, diversity of our membership people because if we don’t have a diverse board then we’re never going to be able to have more diverse leadership of the board and the organization.” This is a goal that current Chamber president Ron Snitker affirms. “I am committed to expanding our board and

membership diversity,” Snitker said. “This year we extended that focus by forming an inclusion committee, which is led by Kanitha Pope, a Chamber board member. The committee will have special inclusion activities for the transgender and African-American community and women. We had our first event, The Connector, to listen to the needs of the African-American business community. We are excited to continue the ideas attendees shared with us through that event.” What else does Woolley envision (pending Board direction of course)? “I could easily see us, in five years, being a statewide Chamber of Commerce with affiliate chapters in other cities. Memphis and Chattanooga have already expressed interest in having Chambers but they don’t have the infrastructure. So you create a statewide chamber. You give them the infrastructure, the Web site, the programming, the booklet on how to do it.” This gives the Chamber a bigger voice. “All of the organizations and the companies and members join at the statewide level and that increases our strength across the state,” Woolley said. “No longer can legislators look at you and say it’s the little blue bubble of Nashville that wants to effect this change. No, it is members and businesses all across the state. I’d love to see a member in all 99 counties and use that to advocate at the state level on the discriminatory policies that we push back against.” “We also want to focus more on educational opportunities for all levels of our membership,” Woolley explained. “We do a lot of corporate education and networking activities. The (Employee

Resource Group) ERGs from the corporations mingle with one another once a quarter and talk about best practices and what they’re doing. We do the power lunches and those have kind of a scattershot of who we’re educating with those.” Woolley would like to see multiple tracks of programming to more consistently provide educational opportunities to all sizes of business. “Let’s face it, HCA is a member of our chamber to get a different education from us then the average small business. Those small businesses are more concerned with questions like, ‘How do I find insurance for my five employees? What’s the tax structure that best suits my company of 12 people?’ Those are the things that I think we can offer our mid- or small-business members.” Woolley is enthusiastic to embark on this new role. “I’m so passionate and love our community so much and that started at a young age, with me learning how to advocate and be involved and be a part of a community like we have. I had friends take me under their wing and introduce me to this great community of Nashville and the LGBT community that we have there.” “I grew up in small-town Idaho. I still have my suicide note from high school because I was one of those bullied kids and I hid who I was for so long. But, when I moved here, I thought that you can be who you want to be, and it does get better and you live the life that you always dreamed. And that’s why I do the volunteer work that I’ve done and why I’m just so honored to be able to now do this as a profession—to be able to live every day fully in the world of LGBT advocacy.”

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SEPTEMBER 2018

TEP TO FOCUS ON ‘PREEMPTION LAWS’ AND NON-DISCRIMINATION BRANDON THOMAS DISCUSSES NEW POSITION’S OBJECTIVES

PHOTO: MATT FERRY

BRANDON THOMAS

My name is Brandon Thomas and I’m the new State Preemption & LGBTQ Non-discrimination Project Coordinator for the Tennessee Equality Project Foundation. I grew up in Smyrna and graduated from MTSU with a Political Science degree. In 2016, I ran for State House in the 49th District, and was recently elected to serve as the committeeman for Senate District 13 on the Tennessee Democratic Party’s Executive Committee. I currently live in Smyrna with my husband, Michael, our son, Ezra, and our pug, Coco. I’ve been volunteering with Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) for years, serving as a district captain for Advancing Equality Day on the Hill, and working with the TEP Rutherford County Committee. TEP has been around since 2004, when it was formed to fight the ballot measure aiming to put an antimarriage-equality amendment into our state constitution. As I came out and came up as a baby activist, TEP was always there, fighting for our community. At MTSU, I became more aware of TEP’s work, and I am so grateful for all the bad bills that TEP and its supporters have defeated over the past 14 years. That’s why I’m so glad to be working with TEP. Although the position is only temporary, as it is grant-funded, I’m honored to have the opportunity to work assisting TEP’s executive director Chris Sanders in educating people from across the state on issues that affect LGBTQ+ Tennesseans. Specifically, I will be working to educate citizens on how the state interferes with local governments and how that interference

prevents local governments from implementing laws they have already passed that help their constituents—laws like increasing the minimum wage or creating an inclusive non-discrimination policy. Every time the state of Tennessee preempts the actions of local governments, it undermines the local democracy and discourages city/town officials from solving problems that are unique to their own communities. As we all know, the fight for LGBTQ+ equality has many fronts: housing discrimination, acceptance in social circles or organizations, medical discrimination, and poor treatment in school, just to name a few. However, employment discrimination may be one of the more alienating forms of discrimination for LGBTQ+ people. Being denied a well-paying job or promotion because of one’s perceived sexual orientation or gender identity prevents LGBT people from ascending into economic prosperity, and it prevents them from having the security and stability that could help them to flourish. It also deprives many of access to quality benefits. It’s degrading and isolating. There are 31 states, including the state of Tennessee, that allow discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The state of Tennessee also actively prevented Nashville from instituting their own policy encouraging Metro contractors to implement inclusive non-discrimination policies. This is just one of many examples of the state preempting local attempts at protecting the LGBTQ+ community. A city government passed a law protecting our community, and the

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“...EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION MAY BE ONE OF THE MORE ALIENATING FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION FOR LGBTQ+ PEOPLE.”

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state government stepped in and told them they couldn’t do it. We should never accept the state mandating lessinclusive policies. There’s no logical reason to keep a city from doing what it feels is necessary to protect its citizens— especially when the party setting up the roadblocks is one that champions “local control.” It’s clear that “local control” only matters when they agree with the local government. The State of Tennessee is no stranger to intervening in local government affairs. When Nashville and Memphis wanted to decriminalize marijuana possession by allowing a lesser civil penalty for individuals caught with small amounts, the state prevented that. When cities and towns were debating on whether to remove civil war monuments, the state of Tennessee made it illegal for any locality to remove them. The city of Memphis legally sidestepped the state by selling the parks that housed a statue of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest and Confederate president Jefferson Davis. The state of Tennessee retaliated, in an effort to make an example out of Memphis, by removing a $250,000 earmark for Memphis’ bicentennial. This petty act by some state legislators flies in the face of the “local control” they claim to believe in. Tennessee has also prevented local governments from mandating health insurance benefits, leave policies, hourly wages, and laws stopping wage theft. These are all policies that could have helped Tennessee workers, but the state chose to step in and make sure our neighbors remain less protected. While we cannot advocate around all these issues, we do want to make sure that LGBTQ+ people are able to get hired, work, and get the promotions they deserve, discriminationfree.

If you have been on the receiving end of employment discrimination, TEP would like to hear your story. We are collecting stories to document how pervasive and problematic state intervention can be when it prevents a locality from demanding an inclusive work environment within its borders. Please visit bit.ly/TEPsurvey2018 to take the survey.

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NASHVILLE GRIZZLIES GEAR UP FOR A NEW SEASON TEAM DEBUTS NEW HEAD COACH AT RUGBY 101 CODY TRACEY

PHOTOS: RICK GODBOLD

After a fantastic Spring 2018 season and Summer 7’s season, the Nashville Grizzlies are gearing up for an even better Fall 2018 season. The Grizzlies kicked off the new season with their bi-annual Rugby 101 skills clinic on August 11, to recruit some new players, give fans a chance to learn more about the game, and welcome our new head coach Jonathan Jenkins. Jenkins has been playing rugby for eleven years, and he played with the Grizzlies for one year before accepting the position of head coach. He says that he is “excited to see new and old faces” and is “looking forward to further developing my skills as a coach while hopefully helping everyone increase their skills and have fun doing it!” With a strong showing of both veterans and new players at 101, this season looks promising for the team. This season the Grizzlies will be playing more in the True South Men’s Matrix—a division of USA Rugby. This means that the team will be going up against fewer IGR (International Gay Rugby) teams and more local ones, such as Jonesboro and Jackson, Mississippi. But the Grizzlies will still compete in a few IGR matches, most notably the Queen City Crown. Having won the tournament the last two years, the pressure is on to once again bring home the crown for Nashville. Looking to play? Come on out to one of our practices—we are always looking for new players! For more information, contact James Poland at Membership@GrizzliesRugby.org.

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2018 FALL SCHEDULE

Sept 29 Queen City Crown 2018 in Charlotte, NC

Oct 13 Away Match vs. Jonesboro Chiefs in Jonesboro, AR

Oct 27 Home Match vs. Jackson Rugby FC from Jackson, MS

Nov 17 Away Match vs. Charleston Blockade in Charleston, SC

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In the age of Trump, in the land of Trumpistan, it can be easy to get lost in the gloom and doom of the current political climate. For LGBT people, very real threats are growing in most places, not diminishing. But one man has made it his profession to place Der Trumper in a context that brings a little light to the situation—lampoon and parody—and now he’s taking his antics one the road, LIVE! That’s right, we’re talking about Randy Rainbow, the gay YouTube sensation who has produced so many viral videos over the last eight years. Most of his career has been spent covering the hot topics of the hour, often popular culture, though he made occasional forays into politics. These videos were boosted by some major LGBT blogs and websites, fueling their viral reach.

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SEPTEMBER 2018

@OUTANDABOUTNASH

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The 2016 presidential campaign, however, and its aftermath, have left us in a world where politics remains the hot topic and given Rainbow a never-ending dumpster fire to set to parodies of the world’s greatest musical numbers! These videos raised Rainbow’s profile to a whole new level and provided him the audience, and thus the opportunity, to support a road show, so to speak. As a minority, Rainbow is a two-fer, the gay son of a liberal Jewish family. While this means that a certain segment of Trump’s America sees him as having two targets painted on his back, this background provided him a healthy and nurturing environment— he’ll joke perhaps overly so. “I was born on Long Island and raised in South Florida,” Rainbow said. “As far as being gay, I come from a very liberal Jewish family. My mother is super into musical theatre, and to put me to sleep she used to play the sound tracks of Oklahoma and The Music Man, so … she seriously wanted a gay kid. She certainly did everything in her power to make sure I turned out this way!” “My coming out story,” he continued, “isn’t a very noble one because … I was around seventeen years old when mom sat me down and said, ‘Look, I worked really hard to make you this gay, so…’ Not really, but she sat me down and said she knew, and it was easy… I was very fortunate, I one of the too-few people who have such an easy time with that.” His family also encouraged him as an entertainer. “My father was a musician and my grandfather on my mother’s side was a musician. I come from a long line of musical, theatrical, and very funny people. Although no one in my family was a professional comedian, it was always like *Last Comic Standing* at the dinner table or Thanksgiving.” “Oh, they also put me in ballet when I was 8,” he added, “to make sure that I was really, super gay. So that kind of started my theatrical career: my first time on stage was as a ballet dancer. And then, from there, I went through theatrical summer camps in Hollywood, Florida, and that really hooked me on the musical theatre and performance aspect of my life.” Rainbow moved to New York to follow his dreams. After a brief stint in school to study theatre, however, he opted for a nontraditional approach to getting into the business. “I didn’t have the natural trajectory most musical theatre majors do—move to New York and start pounding the pavement. Honestly, I just didn’t have the guts to do it right away … so I just worked in restaurants and eventually started working for a music producer as a receptionist.” As a receptionist, he would discover his niche. “I kind of wound up hanging with these Broadway types,” he explained. “People like Patti Lupone and Elaine Stritch would come into the office on a daily basis. I mean it was heaven to me … but all of these interesting things were happening. That’s why I started blogging—I wanted a record, an outlet to express all of these funny things… That’s really how it all started for me. From there I got a gig on BroadwayWorld.com and that’s where I really started...” Once he’d developed a following, however, Rainbow decided to take it a step further. “Once the blog started getting a following, the musical theatre ham and performer in me kind of kicked in and thought, ‘I have a little bit of an audience now, maybe this would be a fun time to step back into the performance aspect.’ Everyone was starting to make videos for YouTube, and I thought, ‘Why not me?’ So the first sort of ‘hot topic’ video I did was ‘Randy Rainbow is Dating Mel Gibson.’ I was thrilled that that kind of went viral and kind of kept going from there.” Rainbow isn’t shy about admitting he chased the topic of the hour and rode the wave of conversation. “There was a lot more pop That’s what everyone was talking O U T culture… ANDABOUT NASHV I L L E .CO M SEPTEMBER 2018 about and I

just went to whatever was trending, whatever was arguing about on their Facebook pages… I always did whatever everyone was talking about. After Mel Gibson I stuck with the ‘hot topic’ thing… You know, that was a tried-and-true gimmick.” “So from there on, for years, I would just insert myself into whatever was the hot topic of the day. It was Charlie Sheen for a minute, Robert Downey Jr., Beyoncé... For Obama’s reelection, with Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and that cast of characters—that was the first time I really got into politics. That in a way kind of prepared me for what I’m doing now.” After years of chasing the topic of the hour, usually pop culture, 2016 was both a radical change, but also very much in the same pattern. There was really no question for Rainbow that politics, the battle between Trump and … everyone, was what was trending, and continues to trend to this day. When asked about his favorite parody videos, Rainbow reflected, “Well I like the ones that go really viral! I’ll always have a special place in my heart for ‘BRAGGADOCIOUS!’ That was the first presidential debate—the Mary Poppins parody I did— and that really kinda took me to the next level because it got 28 million views in a day… The last one I put out, ‘A Very Stable Genius,’ did really well, so that was a fun one. Desperate Cheeto was a big one for me… We open the ‘LIVE’ show with that one actually.” The turn to political and his utilization of musical numbers was a game changer in terms of audience, but also in terms of the feedback he got from fans. “The responses I started getting from people were more than just, ‘Oh, this is really funny!’ They went beyond just the humor of it. First of all, every day the thing I hear most of all from people is ‘Thank you!’ People are grateful that in a time when we are in crisis and everything is so doom and gloom I think people are so happy to have an outlet, to kind of poke fun at it a little bit and find some humor in it. That really is the main impetus for carrying on down this path—that people are getting something from it, that people are getting some relief.” “Other than that,” Rainbow added, unable to remain too serious for too long, “it’s just a gold mine in terms of comedy, but I don’t have to tell you that! Every day it’s handed to me—it’s kinda easy as far as research is concerned.” The broader audience has brought him a higher profile than he had previously enjoyed. “It’s crazy—I get stopped on the street now. I haven’t been stopped once since I’ve been on the phone with you walking down the streets of New York, which is terribly embarrassing. I hope you’ll edit this to look like I was stopped every three minutes.” “But yeah, I walk down the street and I get noticed: I got recognized walking out of my apartment the other day. Anyone who creates internet content will tell you that it can be a very isolating experience. For me this is especially true since I work literally by myself. I don’t have a team or anybody, from coming up with the ideas to coming up with the video to editing and recording—everything is just me.” Given the content of his video and the virulence of Trump’s most active fans, one would expect Rainbow to be drowning in hate. He said, however, “I always say you’d be surprised by how much hate mail I don’t get! I think that I kind of figured out a way to attack it that is palatable to even people who don’t agree with me politically. While I do inject my opinion—and I do point out how ridiculous Donald Trump is and his administration is and his behavior is—I try to make myself the joke at the end of the day, and that may come across in the videos so that it’s not too polarizing.” “I hear a lot from people who say, ‘We don’t agree politically, it has nothing to do with you, I hate gay people, and I’m a racist and a bad person, but I love your videos…’ I’m exaggerating slightly for comedic purposes … but not by much. I think it’s a

testament to how unifying humor can be…” “While touring, I do Q&As and meet-and-greets with people who tell me that what I’m doing is having a more profound impact on them or their families,” Rainbow said, “I hear from parents of children who say that they use my videos as kind of a teaching tool, and I hear from teachers sometimes who play my videos in class [for students to analyze] which is interesting… Knowing that has made me more aware of the potential impact when making the videos, that this does have the ability to have a greater effect…” Given how linked his rise in popularity has been to the Trump phenomenon, he said, “People ask me, ‘What are you going to do when you don’t have him?’ Like I said, I’ve been doing this for seven or eight years now, mostly without Donald Trump… I am not defined by one man! You know, there will always be some asshole doing some crazy bullshit that needs a song parody, so I don’t think my well will ever run dry, thankfully!” So what can you expect from his show? “This first incarnation of Randy Rainbow LIVE as we’re calling it is all about the music. I’m so happy that most of the viral videos are song parodies because I’m a show queen. I really didn’t expect it to be that way—most of the early videos weren’t musical at all. So now that I have this kind of musical platform, it’s really about the music. I have a live band, and we’re doing all the hits. There’s a big giant screen behind me with interactive videos, and then we do them all live right before your eyes. There’s a little stand up woven in, and a Q&A…” “I have a pretty standard set. I thought when we started touring a year ago that I’d have to change it up much more frequently because I figured my songs are so topical that I’d have to change them … but it turns out we’re still talking about a lot of the crap we were talking about a year ago, so a lot of them are a little more evergreen than I imagined. We might change a few things based on what Wolf Blitzer is talking about before I go on stage, but I guess we’ll have to see what he does next!”

Randy Rainbow LIVE will be staged in Nashville at TPAC’s Polk Theatre for one night only, on September 29, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. For information about the show, or to purchase tickets, visit tpac.org.

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THE ROOT CELLAR GETS STEAMY AS THE MEN STRIP DOWN

MUSIC CITY MALE REVUE OFFERS TANTALIZING SHOWS JAMES GRADY

It’s been a while since there was anywhere to go in Nashville and pay to see hot men strip down—since Arrow closed, you either see it for free or you set up a private adventure. So far there’s nothing to quite replace the strip club, but Music City Male Revue may be as close as we’re going to get. The men are hot, and they’ll strip down to some pretty tight underwear during the hour-long show. The Revue’s website explains what you should expect: “Not that. It’s not that kind of show. Damn girl, clean it up, your soon-to-be-mother-in-law will be there! But have no worries, we are a PG-13 male burlesque show featuring some of Nashville’s most talented and chiseled performers, located downtown in the heart of Music City at The Root Cellar beneath BB King’s Blues Club. This is Nashville’s first and only male revue. For approximately an hour, you will enjoy a fully choreographed entertainment experience with slamming music, and a full service bar. We’d like to think that you can bring your soon-to-be-mother-in-law and not have to worry!” That description also tells you a lot about who the show was created for and marketed to, as well. One of the show’s organizers and promoters, Shawn Katz, freely acknowledges this, but he believes the show will appeal to LGBT audiences as well. “While the show was created with the immense numbers of Nashville bachelorette tourists in mind,” Katz explained, “it has quickly morphed into a variety show of a show that appeals to, we believe everyone, the LGBT community included. Thanks in part to the addition of our new host Veronika Elektronica. We all feel anyone over 21, who appreciates comedy, dancing and singing along to popular music will not be disappointed.” Hey, there’s a drag queen at a venue DESIGNED for bachelorettes! It might be fun for LGBT folks to crash THEIR party sometime! Veronika Electronika has been around the scene for a while, and I spoke with her, as host of the show, to gauge just how much this display might appeal.

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JG: So, tell me about the show and how you got involved in Music City Male Revue? Veronika: It’s the best way to start your weekend... Drinks, drag, and Downtown Nashville! I was referred by Johnathan Pinkerton. He is friends with one of the managers... They had a different host, who was more like a karaoke host... When I came in I wanted to bring in Las Vegas energy, with Nashville charm. So, after I begin the show by performing a couple of high energy numbers and prepping these folks, we can hardly keep them in their seats! The show itself consists of 6 to 7 dancers of all types—even one on skates from time to time. They perform as firemen, cops and lots of other tantalizing fantasy men. Working the stage and the room, they keep the energy up—pair that up with shots, and it makes for an amazing experience. JG: What’s the flow of the show like? Veronika: I open the show with a number, then welcome the crowd and lay out the ground rules. Then the dancers do a group number, and the individual dancers perform. There is an intermission, with a little more drag, before the dancers do another number. JG: So, it’s not like a strip show: there isn’t any touching or tipping, so how would you describe “the interest” of such a show? Veronika: The audience loves the guys. They like that the dancers are personable, and of course it doesn’t hurt when they strip down to their briefs, oiled down for your viewing pleasure. Of course, they girls say I’m the best part.. I’ve had 5 brides ask me to be a bridesmaid! But, seriously, they love when the dancers sing live, or play guitar! And they love the choreography, of course! JG: The guys are mostly, if not all, straight. Do they seem comfortable with you as a gay man or with men in the audience? They are very comfortable. I’ve asked them if a group of gay men was to come, would they be cool. And their response was, “We just want people to have a good time, no matter who they are.” Veronika: What’s the hottest thing you’ve seen ... and will we be able to stomach the brides to be? The brides are cool! And the hottest thing? Three sets of cheeks along one wall while changing for a group number, but that’s backstage! But … Benedict Cummerbuns plays the guitar and winds up wearing union jack undies, which he fills them out beautifully! He’s also like 6’3” and smoking... DOWNTOWN

So, if you’re interested in catching the show, watching come hot men dance, and crashing some bridal parties, you can get more information on the show at musiccitymalerevue.com.

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SEPTEMBER 2018

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OVER

the RAINBOW

I N H E R I T I NG T HE W IND

JULIE CHASE | @notninahagen

As I write, the Metro Nashville Police Department is going through one of the toughest weeks in its history. By the time this column gets published, there may be a resolution to this course of events, but the just-released video of the shooting of an African-American man fleeing a Metro Police officer frankly does not look good collectively for any of the folks who wear blue. I do not hate the police. I believe many are heroes, but something’s got to give here. Perhaps the era of “broken window” policing needs to come to an end before anyone else gets hurt. Nashville’s Guardians are fully capable of community policing when they try. They really need to try harder than ever in the coming months. We need heroes, not soldiers, out there. I was sitting in a room with transgender people like me very recently. They were talking about their problems, and I was silently confronting the reality of how my life has been one of relative privilege. I do not go to these meetings as often as I really should. Frankly, I am afraid of what to say when I do. I really cannot relate to what most LGBTQ+ people around me have to go through on a daily basis. Three years of transition and a surgery later, I am still learning. I will likely always be learning what it truly means to really be “one of us.” Maybe that’s just me, but perhaps that is a decent snapshot of Nashville too? I just got into trouble with Chattanooga LGBTQ+ activist Samantha Boucher for calling our own community “a little too fat and happy” I’m swiftly learning not to throw out glib statements such as this with Samantha. She recently organized the Chattanooga Queer Community Forum and helped it to partner with allied organizations to turn out the vote for progressive LGBTQ+ candidates during the recent primary election, while helping to spearhead the City of Equality campaign for LGBTQ+ rights down there. The Reverend Alaina Cobb of Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Centre is another Chattanoogan I think about. Alongside its other functions, Mercy Junction is a homeless shelter and a safe haven for queer youth in the Chattanooga area. Pastor Alaina is an LGBTQ+

O U T A N D A B O U T N A S H V I L L E .CO M

activist herself, one who is not afraid to put herself in harm’s way for causes she believes in. She works alongside others who are challenging the conventional wisdom throughout the South. The younger LGBTQ+ Chattanoogans I have recently met startle me with their knowledge and their social action, and there are far more than the two listed above. My generation never ever got that close. Not for trying though, it was just a different world then. There was no real difference between political parties or politicians, and most would not come anywhere near us. The fear of AIDS set back real political progress for our community until my thirties, and we did not have that social leveler called “The Internet” just quite yet. Nashville is a little different, due to its history: the powers-that-be who really ran this city were a clubby group of business types who pretty much decided what the mayor was going to do on an issue long before the legislation crossed his desk. It was an unelected commission that worked fine until the city grew way too big to let this continue. Civil Rights came to town (mostly) peacefully because this group thought it would be for the best. I would argue that the beginnings of LGBTQ+ rights came the same way. A mayor named Bredesen sent those folks opposed packing to Williamson County to build something new, but that cultural legacy is still with us. We tend to wait patiently here until those who really run the show see what’s good for business and (eventually) act upon it. This is how we have become an “it” city after all. The commission worked, but sometimes Firebase Nashville looks more like an LGBTQ+ talking shop as a result of all that. Think about it: when was the last time we really had to come together as a community to defend ourselves? Yeah, it’s been awhile, and I am not complaining, but perhaps we have become a little too complacent when our sisters and brothers are fighting bigotry and injustice just outside these walls. Do some of these awakened LGBTQ+ people make me nervous? “Uncomfortable” will always be a better word. My childhood memories are made up of these people here and abroad. They are doing exactly what the social progressives did back then before my kind stepped in to save the world through

SEPTEMBER 2018

ILLUSTRATION: MELISSA GAY

The comfortable among us are being challenged by the awakened ones. That’s a good thing...

supply-side economics. Other Southern LGBTQ+ communities big and small are fighting for the same opportunities that we take for granted here. Nashville is a firebase because we are a safe haven for Queer resistance throughout the South. Perhaps we should lend our colleagues an active hand too? Samantha made a decision to come back from San Francisco to help her people change the South. This is home, and she would rather be trying to make a real difference here. I suspect Pastor Alaina would agree with that… We should too. Let’s all step out of our comfort zone more often. Nashville can only lead if we choose to be in front. Julie Chase is the pen name for a local trans woman.

Shake it up.

Stir it up.

SINCE 1888 @OUTANDABOUTNASH

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