Watermark Issue 22.20: Come Out With Pride

daytOna beach • OrlandO • tamPa • st. Petersburg • sarasOta • issue 22.20 • sePt. 24 - Oct. 7, 2015 • watermarKOnline.cOm

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I don’t think I’ll ever get to a place where I don’t say I’m sorry PAGE to someone who’s telling me 37 their story for the first time.

departments 6 // mail 7 // editor’s desk 8 // orlando news 12 // tampa bay news 16 // state 18 // nation & world news 27 // in-depth 37 // arts & entertainment 49 // commUnity calendar 51 // tampa bay oUt+aboUt 53 // orlando oUt+aboUt 55 // transitions/wedding bells 56 // tampa bay marketplace 57 // sports 58 // orlando marketplace 62 // Uprisings

—former exoDus inTernaTional leaDer alan cHamBers

on the cover

PAGE

45

PAGE WhaT a

27

DIFFereNCe a Year MaKeS:

After a series of unexpected pitfalls and the reorganization that they imply, Come Out With Pride promises that this year’s Orlando festival will continue the organization’s upward trajectory, and then some.

scan Qr code For

watermarkonline.com

she’s a brick: The new Stonewall film breaks into theaters this month, leaving the LGBT community—and the film’s

director—in a state of confusion as to what the alleged “whitewashing” of the message will mean for progress. It’s all about the brick.

watermark i ssUe 22.20 //sept ember 24 - oct ober 7, 2015

doctor, doctor

tampa bay news

don’t be sUch a prUde too mUch inFormation

PAGE Dr. David Baker-Hargrove

PAGE There’s still a lot to sort out

PAGE

read it Online!

In addition to a Web site with daily LGBT updates, a digital version of each issue of the publication is made available on WatermarkOnline.com

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follows his heart and expands his practice downtown in order to better serve the underserved, and those who are transgender.

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about what’s going on with the closing of Georgie’s Alibi in St. Petersburg and the potential fallout of the surrounding LGBT business core, but one thing is certain: There is no more Alibi.

As Come Out With Pride approaches, local legend Michael Wanzie reflects on why we are so loud when we are proud.

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PAGE

Our political column Uprisings licks the wounds of a Republican presidential debate with a salty tongue while reaching for its pollwinning hairpiece and a cocktail. In other words, we’re scared.

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checK watermarKOnline.cOm fOr mOre On the tsa trans scandal and hOw it is unfOlding.

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On the announcement that Georgie’s Alibi would be closing:

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“Wow, as a lesbian you really offend me with your misdirected misogynistic anger. My friends and I didn’t even go to Alibi because it was always nothing but men, especially OLD men. How did they ever cater to the lesbian community? Good to know we lesbians have so much power to “destroy.” Guess our next target will be dinosaurs like you.”

—Quelle Kel Kelly

“This is one of two places I actually feel comfortable going in town and the other is far too expensive to go to as often. I’m just gonna go cry for a while.”

“Georgie’s - you will most certainly be missed and I wish you the best. Thank you for wonderful memories” —Sandra Greene Rodriguez “Man great PIZZA. Will be missed!!!”

—Bill Kody

On why the Kim Davis story needs to be told:

“Do you support the civil rights act? I’m guessing yes. Well, then you support providing Kim Davis an accommodation for her religious beliefs as Judge Bunning has actually done (i.e. allowing deputies to issue the SSM licenses). The civil rights act requires these accommodations for public and private employees. For example, as is done for Muslim truck drivers who do not wish to deliver alcohol.

We’ll see if she abides by the accommodation. If she doesn’t she is out of line. I’ve grown weary of the “tolerant” crowd only tolerating their way or the highway. The words bigot and racist have been completely abused. As a heterosexual who has no problem with SSM let me tell you the rabid attack of folks who may not agree with SSM is a huge negative for my support of the “cause.”

—wreckinball

“Nobody asked Kim Davis if she supported gay marriage before her sudden “conversion” 4 years ago, but I strongly suspect she never supported marriage equality, and her newfound religiosity is merely a mask for her prejudice. Good points in the blog article, too.”

—Jerry Reiter

—Xqueenofthenightx

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Watermark’s Facebook page:

On Georgie’s Alibi officially being closed:

“It was the year 2000, me and my husband Jasen moved in together into a studio apartment after a year of dating each other.

Almost every night and weekend we were going out to gay bars and clubs. One of our favorite spots to go to was Georgie’s Alibi. You had a vision where a bar could help ignite a spark in our GLBT community and it spread like wildfire thru out Tampa Bay. Thank you for your love, vision and passion, and giving a place that we could always call home.”

—Mark Ferguson-Nokham

On Kim Davis altering marriage forms:

“Which brings into question their legitimacy more so than the ones the were issued while she was in the clink, which she claimed were invalid because she didnt sign them.”

—Michael Davis

On the ACLU backing a Human Rights Ordinance for Pensacola:

“The ACLU of Florida is responsible for more proLGBT laws and policies in North Florida than Equality Florida. I would even bet that ACLU of Florida is responsible for more proLGBT laws and policies in the entire State of Florida than any organization other than PBCHRC.” —Rand Hoch

Photo by RobERt bARtLEtt

editor’s

billy manes editOr

BIlly@WatermarkOnline.com

“I

desk

T’s noT going To sTop ‘Til you

wise up.” That’s the song, the notoriously tear-dredging anthem of internalized polar angst penned by Aimee Mann for the film Magnolia nearly two decades ago, that was dragging my internal jukebox into the ground this morning before work.

No, it’s not because I’m an alcoholic, or a drug addict, or a cop, or a former child star, or a dying television host, or a survivor of sexual abuse, or a frog falling from the sky—though none of those were lost on me in various moments of central casting, hanging out by the craft service table of existential selfmythology. I’ve been down. I am out. I’ve moved up.

We all have, in many ways. Or so you would think. I don’t want to pussyfoot around the issues of rising ships and incremental gains at this point, because that’s

watermark staFF

something that implies an apathy that doesn’t necessarily ring with truth: not in this guy, not in this paper. Yes, it is important to mind our tempers as we watch prospective politicians toss our names into the gutter in order to gain base-minded cheers in election years, just as it is important that we scream from the tops of our lungs (and/ or social media fingers) at the injustices still lying before us, sometimes in the simple code of Facebook speak.

What really got me going this morning was a response

Founder and Senior Contributor: Tom Dyer • Tom@Watermarkonline.com Publisher: Rick Claggett • ext. 110 • Rick@Watermarkonline.com Admin. Assistant: Kathleen harper • ext. 100 • Kathleen@Watermarkonline.com Editor-in-Chief: Billy Manes • ext. 101 • Billy@Watermarkonline.com Online Media Director: Jamie hyman • ext. 106 • Jamie@Watermarkonline.com Tampa Bay Staff Writer: Jeremy Williams • ext. 102 • Jeremy@Watermarkonline.com Proofreading: ed Blaisdell

to a response (I know, right?) on Longwood Republican Rep. Scott Plakon’s page regarding his so-called Pastor Protection Act, a fuzzy bit of illogical thinking currently playing at a political theater near you. Plakon was quoted as saying legislation that protects pastors from the coming gay marriage storm hurts no one.

I chimed in, as I do at 5 a.m. when I can’t sleep, with a bit of logic calling him out on it. Plakon and I go way back, so it wasn’t an ad hominem attack; he’s a nice guy, and I’ll give him that. Plakon went as far as to point all the way over to Texas and say that everyone there loves it—the exact same superfluous legislation passed in Texas, even with a pansexual representative, Plakon likes to genuflect. But then somebody from Plakon’s base who shall remain unnamed popped up with this bit of pre-coffee bluster.

“Billy Manes, the ‘crusaders’ here are the people seeking to redefine marriage to fit their sexual preferences and trying to ram that definition down everybody’s throat with the power of government. THAT is what is unkind. Nobody wants to celebrate anything, marriage or otherwise, gay or straight, with people who are simply bullies, once we peel off the selfrighteous rhetoric. We don’t know if these ‘crusaders’ are doing this out of bottomless selfishness, or a coordinated desire to undermine our society. But it is time to stop tolerating the tyranny. That is what Scott Plakon is doing.”

Really.

Maybe that’s why this issue you see before you is so important to me. The anthill has been kicked and, well, things are getting ugly. We’ve taken mild heat for not being more political in our coverage of Come Out With Pride—which is just around the corner and on the cover of this newspaper!—mostly because

there are those among us who fear that we are losing our edge as a culture and LGBT family.

Does gay culture still matter? Is it a song and dance choreographed in nothing but the aural bounces of joy and escapism? Yes, it still matters, certainly as long as pastors are playing victims and strangers are calling out our tyranny and throat-ramming.

In this issue, you’ll find compelling evidence of both an evolution of our culture and the need for more honesty, more abrasiveness, even more fun.

Former Exodus International head Alan Chambers tells us

Does gay culture still matter? Is it a song and dance choreographed in nothing but the aural bounces of joy and escapism?

Yes, it still matters.

about ending his reparative therapy racket; we look into the temporal (and brick-laden) collage that is the new Stonewall movie; Michael Wanzie sings the praises of out and loud people at parades; Jason LeClerc (Republican!) argues the worth of sports in the LGBT community; the Come Out With Pride board speaks of a year of rebuilding what has become a behemoth of messaging in a year of adversity; we celebrate some good things going on (a new clinic) and lament some bad things (a gaybar fire). The scene is still set, and we’re still here, but there are still many battles to win.

It’s not going to stop if we give up.

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contribUtors Jason leclerc

is a near lifelong resident of the I-4 corridor, currently in South Tampa. He publishes poetry online at PoetEconomist.blogspot.com.

His first book, Momentitiousness, was published in 2014. His new book, Black Kettle, will be published in 2016. Page 21

micHael WaNZIe is an

Orlando-based playwright, actor and ordained minister. He is most recognized for his direction of productions at the Footlight Theatre at the Parliament House. Page 23

laWrence ferBer

is a freelance writer and novelist and film producer living in Manhattan. He is the associate producer of the film, Bear City 2. Page 45

aaron alper, scottie campbell, sUsan clary, krista ditUcci, kirk hartlage, Joseph kissel, Jason leclerc, mary meeks, stephen miller, david moran, gregg shipiro, greg stemm, dr. steve yacovelli, , michael wanZie

photography brian becnel, nick cardello, angie Folks, brUce hardin, JUlie milFord, travis moore, chris stephenson, lee vandergriFt, tinkerFlUFF

distribUtion rJ pUblishing, lisa Jordan, ken caraway, david kraUss CONTENTS of WATERMARK are protected by federal copyright law and may not be reproduced in whole or part without the permission of the publisher.

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central florida news

space coast pride takes oFF while ocala pride shines anew Ciara Varone Fall is approaching, and along with pumpkin spice treats and still-sweltering weather, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to show your pride.

Though on the scene for eight years, this is a festival of firsts for Space Coast Pride. Expanding to three days for the first time, the festivities kick off with a launch party on Sept.

25 and end with an ocean-view brunch on Sept. 27.

“We’re super exited for all of the growth we’ve had,” said Lexi Wright, president of Space Coast Pride. “We started as a picnic.”

Previous festivals took place in Wickham Park in Melbourne, which Wright said is a great venue, but its hidden location from the main road limited the magnitude of the festival.

Wright became involved in the festival in 2014, after founding the local chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). As president of Space Coast Pride, she said her first goal was to change the location to something larger. Through the efforts of Wright and her team, this year’s festival has moved to the Eau Gallie Arts district. Because of the additional space, they will be hosting the first LGBT pride parade in Brevard County.

Wright has enlisted first openly gay Congressman Barney Frank, Mary Meeks, an attorney who fought for marriage equality in Florida, documentary filmmaker and Meeks’ wife, Vicki Nantz, and transgender rights activist Sabrina Taraboletti to serve as grand marshals for the landmark occasion.

Parade participants will have the opportunity to carry a 100 ft. piece of the Key West Sea-to-Sea rainbow flag.

With over 100 vendors this year, a lineup of musical performances on two stages, drag performances and a kids’ zone, Space Coast Pride is trying to catering to a multitude of tastes.

Wright said being in a conservative area of the state has had its drawbacks, including little media coverage and a lack of legal protections other cities have secured. But with marriage equality being legalized nationwide, Wright said she has hope for bigger things in the future.

“I continue to call this year the perfect storm,” Wright said. “Statewide stuff is trickling down to us.”

The larger scale of this year’s event can lead to continued growth in this area, Wright said.

“We’re creating a sense of community,” Wright said.

“Local politicians see what power we have as a voice at the polls.”

Ocala Pride’s ninth annual festival will be held Oct. 3 at Citizen Circle. Though small compared to other Florida festivals, they’re working on expanding their influence.

“We’re trying to make ourselves more known,” said David Waters, former board member and first-year president of Ocala Pride. “A group of my friends and I, we realized last year … it’s kind of dwindling, so we took it over to try to make it better. I’ve lived here for 18 years, and up until about two years ago, I didn’t even have any idea that Ocala had a gay pride event. “

cOntinued On Pg. 10 | uu |

8

The DocTor is ouT:

Dr. Baker-Hargrove makes inroads for LGBTs downtown.

Photo by JAKe sTeVeNs

Second chances Two Spirit Health Services opens in downtown Orlando Billy Manes

o

rlanDo | As doctors’ offices go, Two Spirit Health Services, recently opened on North Magnolia Avenue in Downtown Orlando (on the North side of Orange Avenue), is fairly posh – far beyond expectations for a health center which seeks to become a one-stop, judgment-free zone for a predominately LGBT client base, covering primary care, mental health concerns, substance abuse, trans-specific health care, among other things (there is a laser hair-removal component).

On the outside, it’s a standard office building across from the nearby Wells Fargo skyscraper; inside, however, its modesty gives way to a touch of flair. The reason for the color splashes and stylish wall adornments is clear: Dr. David Baker-Hargrove (or, Dr. Dave), a longtime fixture in the Orlando LGBT community, a noted mental-

watermark Your lgbt life.

health therapist and the former president of the Metropolitan Business Association, isn’t one to play things down. Though getting the point of launching Two Spirits took some downtime and soul searching, he says, some of that is due to the stresses of leading a volunteer board.

“It’s really kind of interesting, because everybody involved in that point in time has so much better memory, or so much more of a favorable memory than I did, you know, because it was really wearing me down,” he says, in retrospect.

“I was putting in 60 hours a week for which I was not getting paid, and my partner was like, ‘you know you’re not a charity worker. You know that we’re supposed to do this together in terms of the whole making money thing.’… I mean I was driving myself to the poorhouse.

Because it’s so much work.”

Baker-Hargrove almost lost his drive in that period, he says. The money wasn’t pouring in for his

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private practice, and attempts at expanding into something larger, something more necessary for the community, weren’t panning out as expected. His husband Robert remained by his side, but his side wasn’t holding up the plans and the PhD he spent his life working toward. Everything, it seemed, had hit a standstill.

“I sat for the whole holiday season of 2010, I sat on the couch and didn’t move,” he says. “I literally woke up on Jan 1., 2011, and said, ‘girl, you gotta get it together.”

So that’s what Baker-Hargrove did, or at least intended to do.

“I thought, you know, what do you really want to do?” he says.“And I said what I really want to do is I want to open up a health center.

I want to have a comprehensive health coming where the LGBT community can come to get [what they need]; it is going to be open-access, you know? It is not going to be restricted by insurance or ability to pay that anybody can come because, you know, I’ve certainly done enough work in understanding the health disparities that exist between the general population and us. And then especially the transgender population; that’s even worse.

He expanded into his 3,000 sq. ft. medical space, aware of the risk cOntinued On Pg. 10 | uu |

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central florida news | uu | Space Coast/Ocala Pride from pg.8

| uu | Two Spirit Health

Waters and the other volunteers reached out to local businesses and charities, while better utilizing social media to promote the Wells Fargo-sponsored event, including a brandnew website, ocala-pride.org, Waters said.

Coco Montrese from season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race and former Miss Ocala 2005 will be performing at the festival “It’s nice to bring some hometown people that’ve made it back,” Waters said. “She was happy to come and do it for us.”

Waters said Newly-crowned Mster and Miss Ocala Pride Aaron Phoenix and Stephanie Stuart will also be making an appearance. In addition, expect live musical performances and offerings from over thirty local vendors, including Pride merchandise, face painting and a variety of food.

“We want everybody to know that it’s completely familyfriendly,” Waters said. “You can bring all ages. It’s going to be a lot of fun celebrating that we’re here, we’re part of the community and we want to get involved.”

The festival is collecting donations of school supplies to benefit Tools 4 Teaching and dog food and pet supplies for the Marion County Humane Society.

“I’m most excited to see all of our community come out and join together all in the same place,” Waters said. “Have a fun day of acceptance,” Waters said. “Whether you’re gay, lesbian, transgender, straight, just bring everyone together.”

Waters said he expects the festival to grow in years to come.

“Obviously, we’re not the size of Orlando or St. Pete pride or anything like that, but we do hope to get it there.”

Waters said.

of such a leap, and immediately had trouble finding the right physician to head up his ambitions for a one-stop LGBT health center.

“I hired a nurse, so I had a staff,” he says. “No patients; no physician.” He also had a lot of space. As good fortune would have it, Baker-Hargrove headed down to a National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Conference in Ft. Lauderdale last year to explore his cause. It was a new leaf being turned, an attempt to grow out of a 13-hour billing cycle for mental health consultation that wasn’t covering the bills; an attempt to live his dream of paying back a community that had previously treated him so well. After a few stumbles (He called his husband Robert and asked if he could come home, among other bits of turmoil), Dr. Dave bumped into a vendor whose sister was a physician

from pg.8

“It is not going to be restricted by insurance or ability to pay that anybody can come because, you know, I’ve certainly done enough work in understanding the health disparities that exist between the general population and us.” —David Baker-Hargrove recruiter. By the end of the week, he had four candidates, he says.

Perhaps more importantly, one of them was transgender. She was trained as a family physician and a gynecologist and proficient in HIV prevention medications, including PrEP. She’s now on staff.

Moving forward, BakerHargrove hopes to navigate the trials of starting a new health clinic (there is some talk of balancing out-of-pocket fees from insured patients with the uninsured to mitigate rates, but it’s still in the formative stages) while trying to give back to the community he helped to build.

“I feel like the main story of this clinic is about connecting to your dreams,” he says.“Because I feel like the most important thing about this is that it’s taught me.

There were so many times I had fear. There were so many times I had doubt. There were so many times I had impostor syndrome, but what I decided was the need to have this clinic in Central Florida was more important than that. I just figured it out. I mean, now it’s great. It’s a really great space and I think it’s going to do really great things.”

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11

tampa bay news

georgie’s alibi closes doors permanently in st. petersbUrg Jeremy Williams

S

T. peTersBurg | After nearly 18 months on the market, the famed Georgie’s Alibi closed their doors Sept. 19 to the sound of Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” playing on the dance floor.

The Alibi made the announcement to the community via Facebook on Sept. 9 after St. Petersburg realtor Robert Barnum, who brokered the deal on behalf of the Alibi, spoke with Watermark about the sale.

“It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we announce the rumors are true and Georgie’s Alibi St. Petersburg will cease operations at the close of business on Saturday, Sept. 19,” the Alibi said on their Facebook page. “The real estate and an adjoining parcel have been sold to a developer who plans on building new housing units. We can’t thank the greater St. Petersburg community enough for their support over the past 15 years. Technology and the greater acceptance of alternative lifestyles have impacted the viability of gay venues throughout the country, and the Alibi was not immune to this phenomena. Thank you everyone for 15 wonderful years of memories!”

While details of the sale won’t be made public until it closes and becomes public record, Barnum did say that the list price for the Georgie’s Alibi building was $895,000. The building next door was listed for $495,000.

Both buildings were owned by Shoppes of Kenwood LLC and sold to a development company out of Tampa.

While the deal is expected to close sometime after the first of the year, the buildings will not be torn down until late 2016. Apartments will be constructed on the sites.

While Georgie’s closed Sept. 19, Earnest Realty, Inc. (which is owned by Barnum) and Salon Swank will remain open for now, as will the Metro Center in the building across the street.

“We are searching for a new 30-thousand square foot space and have anywhere from six-12 months to maybe move,” said Metro CEO Lorraine Langlois. “For many Metro is a lifeline offering primary care, counseling, HIV care and social gathering. We would like to stay in the Historic Kenwood neighborhood and have some prospects but nothing is solid right now. There is no rush and all services will continue as usual.”

That means big changes throughout the neighborhood in the coming year. Georgie’s is closed and Metro Wellness may be searching for a new home within the next six to 12 months.

cOntinued On Pg. 14 | uu |

12

FIreSTarTer:

(Left) The fire started at the front entrance of Throb Nightclub in Sarasota caused more than $20,000 in damages and forced the club to shut down for four days. (Right) Sarasota police are on the hunt for the arsonist responsible.

up in flames Throb Nightclub re-opened after fire, police still looking for arsonist Jeremy Williams

S

arasoTa | Police are still looking for the man who set fire to the front entrance of Throb Nightclub in Sarasota on Sept. 6.

The fire caused more than $20,000 in damages to Throb and forced the club to shut down for four days while the damage was repaired.

“The entire front facade and entrance to the building was completely charred,” Ronny Barnett, manager of Throb Nightclub, says. “There was lots of flood damage and some electrical damage; I mean we are still finding things that are not quite right.”

Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office released surveillance video on Sept. 10 of the incident in hopes that someone would be able to identify the arsonist.

The video, which can be seen

watermark Your lgbt life.

at watermarkonline.com, shows a man dressed in a dark, longsleeved shirt and light-colored shorts walking to the front of the nightclub. The man is carrying a gas can, according to a report from the sheriff’s office.

The man in the video lights a cigarette and attempts to ignite the fire by flicking it into the gas.

When the fire does not start, the man heads back to the door, starts the fire and walks away.

The picture at the end of the video fills with smoke and the flames can be seen in the bottom corner.

“The scariest part about this whole thing is we share our building with other businesses,” Barnett says. “While there was nobody in our space, there was a worker in one of the other spaces working. It’s pretty scary to think what could have happened. It could have been really bad.”

The building’s sprinkler system prevented the fire from spreading but in turn caused even more

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damage to the club.

“The entire building was completely flooded due to the sprinkler system going off,” Barnett says.

While damage was costly, Throb Nightclub wants the community to know that they are still standing.

“We are back and we are open,” Barnett says. “A lot of folks think we were completely burnt down; we are not. We are definitely open for business, and all of our events are still happening.”

This is good news with Sarasota Pride being less than a month away, but Barnett is still nervous with the arsonist roaming the streets.

“Quite frankly, we aren’t sure if he’s going to try it again,” Barnett says. “Somebody that bold to do something like that during the day and not care is scary. We really want to get him off the streets.”

Anyone with information regarding the crime or who can identify the assailant is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 941-361-4934 or the state fire marshal’s on hotline at 877-622-7766.

“There is a reward out, so anyone with information that leads to this guy’s capture they will definitely be compensated,” Barnett says.

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13

tampa bay news

aclU hopes to raise workForce protection awareness in tampa with “dignity and work” campaign

| uu | Georgie’s Alibi frOm Pg.12 The property right behind the Alibi was sold to a developer, who is building 53 low income housing units.

Earnest Realty did not broker that deal.

“This was the LGBT command center, between the Alibi, MCC and Metro, and Equality Florida being a block away, and there were a lot of gay and gay-friendly businesses in the Metro Center building that have all been given notice to move out,” Barnum says.

King of Peace MCC church of St. Petersburg will not be moving from its building in the Kenwood area.

Georgie’s Alibi and the Kenwood area have also been the staging area for the St. Pete Pride parade and after party.

According to rumors, Pride is looking to move the parade staging to the Tropicana Field, which would change the entire dynamic of Pride.

When reached for comment, Executive Director of St. Pete Pride Eric Skains said that no announcement has been made yet, and that one can be expected by April when St. Pete Pride has their kickoff event next year.

Check back next issue when Watermark will take a closer look at the closing of Georgie’s Alibi and the changes to St. Pete’s LGBT community with an in depth feature.

Jeremy Williams

D

ignidad y Trabajo (“Dignity and Work”), a campaign to raise awareness about the need for providing equal treatment based on sexual orientation and gender identity at the workplace in Florida’s Hispanic community, expanded across Central Florida.

The campaign, which launched March of 2014 in Miami, held its first Central Florida forum hosted

by Ana G. Mendez University in Tampa as well as co-sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Sept. 9 and 10.

“We have this initiative to do outreach and education within the Hispanic community,” Joyce Hamilton, Director of Advocacy, ACLU of Florida says. “We want to raise awareness about the fact that LGBT

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individuals are being discriminated against in the workplace and the fact that Florida has no direct protections for LGBT individuals.”

Dignity and Work is also in partnership with SAVE, the largest organization for the rights of LGBT people in South Florida, and together with the ACLU of Florida they have created a coalition of faith-based and business individuals to get the word out.

“People across our state agree that workers should be judged at work based on their ability to do a job, not on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” ACLU of Florida Mid-Florida Regional Organizer Paola Calvo Florido said in a statement.

Florido is leading the project’s outreach in the Central Florida region.

“What many people don’t know is that people can be fired just for being LGBT in many of our communities,”

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Florido continued. “Through the campaign, we will demonstrate to community leaders in Hillsborough and Orange counties that providing equal treatment represents a commitment to the values of hard work and fairness that our communities hold dear.”

According to Dignidad y Trabajo, 73% of Americans agree that people should be judged by their work performance, not their sexual orientation or gender identity; however, 87% of people in the U.S. believe that a federal law protecting LGBT workers from employment discrimination already exists.

This is why forums like this are so important,” Hamilton says. “It is purely an educational campaign, there’s no action required except joining us and having a conversation about this important issue and let people know why it is so important to have protections for LGBT individuals.”

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15

state news

stUdent liFe improving For transgender popUlation Wire Report

Florida Updates marriage licenses

J

Jamie Hyman It’s official—marriage licenses in Florida will now say “spouse” and “spouse” rather than “husband” and “wife.”

The Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics finalized the inclusive update to state-issued marriage licenses and the new forms became available Sept. 15.

What about same-sex couples who already have marriage licenses that say “husband” and “wife”? Can they get their existing licenses updated?

“No word as of yet. That is something that is currently under discussion,” says Orange County Clerk’s office spokeswoman Elizabeth Roman in an email to Watermark.

Three lesbian couples, along with Equality Florida, are still fighting in court for a similar update to birth certificates. They sued the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics to require that both parents be allowed to have their names listed on birth certificates, even if the parents are the same sex.

pensacola anti-discrimination ordinance on hold Staff Report

p

ensacola, fla. | Pensacola’s City Council is pressing pause on an anti-discrimination ordinance.

The proposal would have prohibited discrimination in work and public accommodations based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status and other categories, as well as update existing protections against housing discrimination.

A big group turned up in council chambers wearing red in support of the ordinance and speakers debated the issue for an hour. According to The Pulse, a Gulf Coast news source, a dozen speakers asked the council to move the ordinance forward but they deferred it to a November workshop to address concerns that the ordinance and its effects need a closer look.

16

acksonville, fla. | A gigantic rainbow flag adorns one wall in Haiden Baier’s new college dorm room, alongside a few photos, illustrations and the lyrics to a Fall Out Boy song.

In past years, the University of North Florida junior said he would usually wait a few weeks to hang it up.

Baier, born female, began identifying as transgender two years ago. It took another year before he was comfortable coming out. He said in the past, he’s played it down with roommates for the first month or so to avoid awkwardness.

“I kind of eased all my roommates into it . tried to make them a little bit more comfortable with it,” he said.

This year, he put his flag up right away, “and no one cared,” he said.

In a room next door, his two suitemates, William Brown and Taylor Holt, chatted about characters on “Parks and Recreation.” Brown is gay and a junior. Holt, a freshman, doesn’t identify as male or female.

They’re all inaugural residents in UNF’s first “genderinclusive” dorm rooms.

For the first time, the college is offering its students the housing designed to accommodate transgender students, like Baier, and others who may not fall into traditional gender norms.

“When you’re living with others, it can get very awkward, very quickly,” said Dei Allard, associate director of UNF Housing and Residential Life. “So making sure that we created an environment that was safe and welcoming for them was the goal.”

The university estimates about 10 percent of its students identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender based on data from its latest survey of campus climate.

Baier along with six other students are the first to occupy the new suites, located in one wing of the campus’s Osprey Fountains

watermark Your lgbt life.

housing complex.

For any student, the first days of living with a new roommate can be nerve-racking, but for students who don’t fall into traditional gender norms, there’s an added layer of unease, Baier said— concerns about being judged and making others uncomfortable.

Up until now, he’s been assigned to all-female dorms, where even seemingly mundane activities, such as using the bathroom, can create issues. It’s the kind of thing many students don’t even think about, he said.

“Most of them took for granted the fact that their gender was automatically assumed and automatically correct, and they didn’t have to come out to anyone,” he said.

Baier, now, has three other roommates, who share two bathrooms and a common kitchenette in the newly refurbished suite.

Brown, who transferred from Palm Beach State College this year, said the housing provides freedom from the judgment he might encounter elsewhere.

“It’s one thing to deal with that in class or out in public, but when I come home to relax and unwind, I don’t have to deal with that,” he said.

Currently, about 200 colleges and universities across the country offer gender-inclusive housing to students, according to national college LGBT advocacy group Campus Pride.

UNF is the fourth college in Florida to offer the option, according to the organization, joining Stetson University, Ringling College of Art and Design and Eckerd College.

The new housing option also marks the 10th anniversary of UNF’s LGBT Resource Center.

Since the Center’s inception, shifts in public opinion and landmark Supreme Court decisions have created a significantly more accepting environment on many college campuses, advocates say.

The Resource Center, itself, has seen the number of weekly visitors jump from a handful to a hundred,

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according to Baier.

However, advocates say there are still hurdles to overcome.

According to the latest UNF poll of LGBT students about the campus climate—taken in 2010— about half report experiencing at least one incident of bias or harassment due to sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Those incidents range from verbal insults to physical assault. Many of those who reported the most severe cases identified as transgender.

In the city as a whole, the debate over expanding protections against discrimination to the LGBT community—a hot-button issue of this year’s election—has not yet returned to City Hall, but the city is expected to make the decision later this fall.

“A lot of times, I think bigotry and prejudice occur because people don’t have the education and the knowledge, and they don’t know people whose lives are affected by these issues,” said Kaitlin Legg, assistant director of the UNF Resource Center.

A new UNF poll of LGBT students is expected this fall.

Legg said with recent developments, such as the legalization of gay marriage and widespread coverage of celebrities Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox raising the profile of transgender people, she expects to see significant progress. “So much has happened in the past five years,” she said. “We’re getting students coming here who are a little bit more progressive in their thinking.”

Holt expects the new university housing to also help push that needle forward.

“I think it brings in a new community,” she said. “We kind of bond together as a group, but we also interact with the rest of our floor mates.”

However, despite a comfortable new place adorned in LGBT pride regalia, Baier said there’s no room for complacency yet.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said.

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nation+world news

in other news Texas man gets probation in death of his transgender girlfriend A 29-year-old Dallas man has been given 10 years of probation in the death of his transgender girlfriend.

Jonathan Stuart Kenney pleaded guilty to aggravated assault as part of a plea deal Sept. 15 in the October 2012 death of 43-year-old Janette Tovar. He had been originally charged with murder, but was re-indicted on a charge of aggravated assault. Prosecutors classified the assault as family violence, not a hate crime. Tovar’s family members were upset about Kenney’s sentence, and held signs in court that referenced the Trans Lives Matter movement.

Boston man claims discrimination from insurance company over use of PrEP A Boston man has filed a discrimination complaint against Mutual of Omaha, claiming the company rejected him for long-term care insurance because he is taking an HIV prevention drug. He alleges the insurer discriminated against him when the company rejected his request for long-term care coverage because he is taking the drug Truvada. Lawyers for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders say the complaint is the first step toward suing Mutual of Omaha for discrimination. The insurance company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Russian pranksters say they called Elton John and impersonated Putin and his spokesman Two Russian pranksters say they fooled Elton John into believing that Russian President Vladimir Putin had given him a call. The British star posted a message on Instagram Sept. 15, thanking Putin for calling him to discuss gay rights in Russia and inviting him for a meeting in Moscow. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the reports, saying that Putin never called John. Vladimir “Vovan” Krasnov and Alexei “Lexus” Stolyarov told Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda Sept. 16 that they had fooled Elton John by calling him and pretending they were Peskov and Putin.

Obama nominates first openly gay service chief to lead Army Wire Report

W

ASHINGTON | President Barack Obama said Sept.

18 that he will nominate longtime Pentagon official Eric Fanning to be the Army’s new secretary. If confirmed, Fanning would be the nation’s first openly gay leader of a military service.

“Eric brings many years of proven experience and exceptional leadership to this new role,” Obama said in a written statement. “I am grateful

said. “The time has come to give this part of our history an imprimatur of national importance.”

The two Democrats were joined by other elected officials and members of the National Parks Conservation Association and the Human Rights Campaign.

National parks can only be created by an act of Congress. They include sites of cultural or historic importance.

Gillibrand says she and Nadler are first asking President Barack Obama to declare Stonewall a monument.

A congressional vote on park status would come later.

Gillibrand credited gay-rights

activists for spurring action on giving greater recognition to the historic tavern raided by police more than four decades ago, triggering violent protests.

During his second inauguration in 2013, Obama mentioned Stonewall and the struggle for LGBT equality as being on a par with women’s and civil rights.

Stonewall would be the first park representing the gay community, but the fight isn’t over, Gillibrand said.

“Same-sex couples don’t have the same adoption rights, or the same federal benefits,” she said. “There’s more work to do.”

“What we are doing today is scientifically and technically accurate,” he continued, and is “based on a medical approach that replaces that old concept of ‘risk groups.’”

The policy change was made “in order to move toward a national blood system that is safe, caring and inclusive” Gollan had said in a statement.

It follows a campaign by gay advocacy groups that had lasted more than 15 years.

“It is a great joy to be able to take this step toward equality and nondiscrimination in one of the last realms that explicitly excluded us from the full enjoyment of our rights,” Esteban Paulon, president of the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals

and Transgender, said in a statement.

Many other countries, including Costa Rica, Brazil, El Salvador and Venezuela, still have blood-donation bans in place.

The US Food and Drug Administration recommended lifting the United States’ ban earlier this year—as long as the men have abstained from sex for a year before giving blood.

Similar policies to that proposed change exist in Australia, Britain, Japan and Sweden, sparking criticism from advocacy groups who see them as still discriminatory.

French President Francois Hollande promised to lift his country’s ban during his campaign, but has so far not done so.

New York legislators want Stonewall Inn to be a national park Wire Report NEW YORK | Two New York legislators are leading a campaign to designate Stonewall Inn as the first national park honoring LGBT history.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler made their announcement Sept. 20 in front of the Greenwich Village tavern that was the scene of a 1969 uprising at a key moment for the nascent gay rights movement.

“When we look at our country, we have recognized women’s rights, civil rights, all kinds of rights,” Gillibrand

Argentina removes ban on gay men donating blood

The Islamic State executes 10 people accused of being gay in Syria

Wire Report

The Islamic State jihadist group executed nine men and a boy it accused of being gay in central and northern Syria Sept. 21, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jihadists shot dead seven men in Rastan, a town in Homs province of central Syria, “after accusing them of being homosexual.” IS also executed two men and the boy in the town of Hreitan, in the northern province of Aleppo, for the same reason, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. In previous cases, IS has beheaded alleged homosexuals or thrown them from rooftops. IS has executed more than 3,000 people, including at least 1,800 civilians, since it announced its caliphate in June 2014.

BUENOS AIRES | A ban on homosexual men donating blood was lifted Sept.

16 in Argentina, a move the gay community had long demanded.

The country joined others in the region, including Cuba, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru, which have ended similar restrictions in recent years.

At a signing ceremony for the resolutions lifting the ban, Health Minister Daniel Gollan said, “For a long time, people believed that homosexual relationships were more risky than heterosexual relationships” in terms of contracting HIV, a perception that had led to the initial ban.

18

for his commitment to our men and women in uniform, and I am confident he will help lead America’s soldiers with distinction. I look forward to working with Eric to keep our Army the very best in the world.”

Fanning has been acting undersecretary of the Army since June. He has served as special assistant to Defense Secretary Ash Carter and held senior positions in the Air Force, including undersecretary from 2013 to 2015.

In a statement, Carter called Fanning an “excellent choice” to

lead the Army.

“Eric served as my first chief of staff at the Pentagon, and it has been a privilege over the course of my career to work alongside him and watch him develop into one of our country’s most knowledgeable, dedicated, and experienced public servants,” Carter said. “I know he will strengthen our Army, build on its best traditions, and prepare our ground forces to confront a new generation of challenges.”

The nomination comes as the Obama administration works to eliminate barriers to military service based on sexuality or gender. Army secretary is a civilian position.

Fanning’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate. He would replace John McHugh, who has said he plans to step down no later than Nov. 1.

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viewpoint

Jason Leclerc

the other side

Of life

p

The other Sams

erHaps THe line THaT

runs between Michael Sam, Sam Singhaus, and Tim Tebow is not completely straight.

I’ll admit that it is Pythagorean and that the angles of right are bisected with complements that dance—in what some might call uniforms but others may prefer to think of as costumes—through the gridiron. It’s the start of football season, after all, and Miss Sammy is the only guaranteed star here along the I-4 corridor.

Traditional arguments for public-private partnerships between sports moguls and their host cities wrap around community-building and victory. Even when professional sports teams are middling, at least the traditional arguments go, they provide opportunities in the form of ancillary tax revenues, tourism, and quality-of-life bona�ides for corporate neighbors’ recruiting. Unfotunately, much of the (true, vetted) economic scholarship on the subject argues otherwise.

We Republicans always like a good economic argument.

Assuming that just for a moment, and to move onto the grander point of this article, the economic impact of a sports team is only 10 percent greater than a Dick’s taking over the empty third Dillard’s at the Volusia Mall, why might communities want to embrace a new sports franchise (or venue) when the returns are so little?

There aren’t many things that groups which include Mike Sam, Miss Sammy and Timmy T. can get behind—that cross the borders of partisanship—than a winning team to rally around. Witness the recent winter celebrations of all things Bolts in Tampa this year.

The people that step into the sports spotlight fulfill a need that we, Americans, all have deep down: to be the best at something. We invest ourselves—publicly, privately—in them.

Whether this is fair or not, we pucker at Michael Sam’s kiss felt round the world as a victory for Pride. We look at Tim Tebow’s unassailable Christian faith as a victory for another minorityin the otherwise secular locker room. We

see these men and we cheer for them. We want them to succeed—not just at football, but in life.

We install our own dreams in them, each according to our needs and to their abilities.

What happens when they fail? Unfortunately, we are all embarrassed.

Sam’s unprecedented and unrepentant retreat dealt a blow, not merely to the pride of the SEC that spawned him, but to the LGBTQ community. He solidified the rest of the world’s discriminations that gay men can’t cut it in professional sports.

And Tim Tebow, good God, even Seminoles have to love him. The Tim Tebow Foundation, which raised $4 million during his first year in the NFL, continues to reach out across politics and religion. He is the anti-Sam, working hard for a second, third, and fourth chance: never quitting. Now forced into a punting situation, even as the Eagles have closed the door on Tebow’s status as a third-string professional quarterback, he falls back deep into the pocket of our hearts.

But he has failed us in no smaller way than Michael Sam. Differently—separately—but equally: failed proselytizers.

Finally, back to those stadiums. For every Tebow and Sam whose careers veer from the gridiron to other venues, there are many more goodhearted, generous, successful athletes whose activities serve as examples that hard work, persistence, faith, and sportsmanship provide returns. Those stadiums become civic meeting-places.

We may have lost the single-faced polarizing forces in individuals Sam and Tebow, but we have not lost the communities that polarized around them. Economists argue that, despite a difficulty in monetizing such benefits, the “public goods” and “externalities” of Tim Tebow and Michael Sam provide ongoing returns.

We have space that, were it not for professional sports, would not exist. If nothing else, we have pre-game and halftime

watermark Your lgbt life.

shows where sousaphonists get vast audiences, where “students of the week” are honored, where veterans are thanked, where the National Anthem is proudly sung, where pee-wees—aspiring athletes

though, there are other venues to consider, other stages whose financial impacts may be ten percent lower than a Bealls or mall’s Piercing Pagoda.

Let’s look no further than downtown Orlando and

a high school English teacher from Gainesville, whose commitment to education is as impressive as the decades invested volunteering as leader and adult advisor to America’s largest youth service

in their own right—get a feel for turf under their young feet, where we are reminded that, deep down, we are a community of communities.

Externalities. Community.

Unlike a library or a performing arts center, we are encouraged to interact together in public celebration of our private similarities.

In choosing our role models,

its perennial entertainer extraordinaire. Season after season, venue after venue, show after show, Sam Singhaus carries himself with grace and aplomb. We see, in the two sides of Sammy, the best of Timmy T and Mikey S, minus the failures. Resilient and consistent, Sammy is our All-American dragster.

Let’s look to Sam Welker,

organization, KEY Club.

There is a place for professional sports in our world. There is a place for defeat in our world. The winning argument for sports is not based in dollars or in professional role models. Rather, it is based in community and the good Samaritans all around us.

For every tebow and Sam whose careers veer from the gridiron to other venues, there are many more good-hearted, generous, successful athletes whose activities serve as examples that hard work, persistence, faith, and sportsmanship provide returns. those stadiums become civic meeting-places.

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viewpoint

Michael Wanzie

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WANZIE

T

I love a parade! he official Program

for this year’s Come Out With Pride celebration has already been widely distributed. And so the chorus begins.

Not the Orlando Gay Chorus, but the chorus of voices that annually rise up in our community (and I imagine in communities across the nation where similar events are staged) bemoaning the aspects of Pride that are not to their liking. Not in reference to the itinerary of Orlando Come Out With Pride events, which span several days; I understand that not every event suits every one’s taste or budget. But if anyone would like to see different events or different takes on existing events, they have only but to volunteer their time and talent and time and energy and time and money and time to the presenting organization and become part of the event in an influential and meaningful way rather than simply criticize it. But I digress.

I am referring to the words that are all too often spoken about the parade itself, and more specifically, parade participants. They are words that hurt my heart and cause me to question the character of those who speak them. I have heard some iteration of these words at least once per day as of late: “I don’t need a Parade to help me feel good about myself” “I’m embarrassed by the Parade. It’s a freak show.”

“The Parade is mostly Drag Queens and Guys in Leather. That doesn’t represent me.”

“Why does everyone involved in the parade have to be so outrageous?”

And my least favorite and most often heard—“If we as gay people want to be accepted by mainstream society then parading men in leather chaps with their ass cheeks hanging out along with a bunch of cross dressers on a float is not the way to do it.”

That last one just kills me. I swear on my mother’s grave these are all sentiments I have heard repeatedly and chances are you or someone you know may have said

something strikingly similar and no less disheartening.

If I may? Pride parades, by their very definition, are not intended to ingratiate LGBTQXYZ people further into the hearts and minds of mainstream society.

The parade always was (and hopefully always will be) our celebration. A celebration of who we are, and there is an incredible amount of diversity contained within those two little letters “w”and “e”.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many in our community totally embrace the concept of diversity as it relates to gays being considered part of the fabric that makes up the greater society as a whole, yet seem to have utter disdain for the diversity within our own ranks.

Just as being a proud American does not require you to identify with, or be defined by, those who may not look and act like you, so too it follows that you can be out and proud and gay as well as conservative in your manner and dress without being tainted by the more flamboyant or sexually explicit among us. It’s not their parade.

It’s not your parade. It is our parade. Being a conservative gay person who abhors the presence of cross dressers in the parade is no different than the Knights of Columbus abhorring the presence of a conservative gay marching unit in St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Making the insidious observation that the parade does not reflect who you are must mean that you are a Martian! Yes, the parade features leather daddies and scantily clad things and female impersonators for days and butch dykes on bikes.

These individuals are no less deserving of a celebration than are you, and they certainly should not be bullied into being anything but who they are, or out of choosing to dress up and be totally outrageous on this particular day, because there is safety in numbers, and they can let loose and it’s just fun to do.

watermark Your lgbt life.

But also in that parade are gay mothers and gay fathers and gay and straight children of gay parents.

Also in the parade are supportive straight moms

heroes who head up a myriad of crucial social service organizations. But the parade doesn’t represent you?

Well, then, who the fuck are you?

statements in quotations I referenced above, then I implore you to reconsider that line of thinking. Otherwise I would wager that you are a somewhat bitter, overly self-

and dads and brothers and sisters and grandparents of gay relatives. In the parade are clergymen and clergywomen and all manner of churchgoers, municipal employees, lawyers, counselors, politicians, singers, members of law enforcement, musicians, car sales people, bartenders, restaurateurs, journalists and publishers, and those

Decide who you are; be at peace with who you are; embrace the concept that you are not defined by others, and come join the parade! Simply by doing so, you will be playing a significant role in making the parade more representative of whomever it is you believe yourself to be.

If you find yourself saying or thinking any of the

concerned and regrettably frightened individual who needs to grow up and stop being so damned concerned about what “mainstream society”might think of our fun and fucking fabulous world class celebration of true diversity.

I hope to see EVERYONE at the Parade.

Yes, the parade features leather daddies and scantily clad things and female impersonators for days and butch dykes on bikes and guess what? These individuals are no less deserving of a celebration than are you, and they certainly should not be bullied into being anything but who they are.

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Sep t emb er 24 - Oc tob er 7, 2015 // Issue 2 2. 20

talking points

34 35 ANONYMOUS

It was like discovering something on your iPhone that it’s always done, but you didn’t quite know it.

It wasn’t a revelation for people who I worked with but it was for the broader world. I felt a tremendous responsibility to do it.

Of

NHL PLAYERS said they wOuld be

ACCEPTING

—apple ceo Tim cook speaking aBouT WHy He came ouT puBlicly on THe laTe sHoW WiTH sTepHen colBerT.

andrew garfield wOuld liKe a Pansexual sPider-man

F

irsT miley cyrus comes ouT as pansexual anD noW spiDer-man?

That would be the web slingers next secret to share with Mary Jane if actor, and ex-Spider-Man Andrew Garfield had his way. In a recent interview with the website Mic, Garfield said he hopes that future installments of the wall-crawling superhero aren’t so limited.

“I’m excited to get to the point where we don’t have to have this conversation, where we can have a pansexual Spider-Man,” Garfield said. “The beauty about Spider-Man, for me, is that he’s covered head to toe. That’s why everyone thinks it could be them in that suit. You don’t see skin color. You don’t see sexual orientation. You don’t see how old the person is, gender, the whole thing. I celebrate that. Anyone can be a hero in their own lives.”

Of an OPenly gay teammate. hOcKey is the Only One Of the fOur maJOr sPOrts tO nOt have an OPenly gay athlete affiliated with it.

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HART TO HART getting gay cOuPle remaKe On nbc

T

He neTWork THaT BrougHT you WILL & GRACE is looking to create the next big gay show, and this time it’s a remake. NBC looks likely to be the home for a Hart To Hart remake, according to Deadline. It’s described as “a modern and sexy retelling of the classic series that focuses on by the book attorney Jonathan Hart and free-spirited investigator Dan Hartman, who must balance the two sides of their life: actionpacked crime-solving in the midst of newly found domesticity,” Deadline reported. The original series ran for five seasons on ABC starting in 1979.

No word yet on who would play the mystery solving couple yet.

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tide thrOws a gay wedding and gets everyOne talKing

T

iDe Has a neW commercial ouT, and it is attacking the bigotry of the conservative Christian right. In the commercial, a pair of grooms walk up to a church.

A conservative looking church lady stands out front and as she sees them approaching says, “How offensive.

I won’t let you blemish the sanctity of marriage.” The grooms start to argue as she pulls out a Tide to Go stick and removes a stain from one of the groom’s shirt. “Flawless! Carry on boys,” she says and walks away.

Mark Nickelsburg, who directed the commercial, shared it on his Facebook page with the caption, “First a clerk in Kentucky, and now a church lady in Los Angeles!”

Sep t emb er 24 - Oc tOb er 7, 2015 // ISSue 2 2. 20

tOm hardy shuts dOwn rePOrter after asKed abOut his sexuality

T

om HarDy anD a reporTer ShareD aN aWKWarD momenT at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept.

12 where Hardy was promoting his new film Legend. “Do you find it hard for celebrities to talk to media about their sexuality?” a Daily Xtra reporter asked Hardy. Hardy responded with a confused, “What on earth are you on about?” After a back-and-forth the actor finally said “Are you asking about my sexuality?” “Sure,” the reporter responded. Hardy replied back “Why?” and then a curt “thank you” and moved on to another reporter’s question before an answer could be given.

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in-dePth: cOwP united

THE

PRIDE PUZ ZLE

A LOOK AT ORL ANDO PRIDE’S DEDICATED TEA M OF VOLUNTEERS, AND HOW THEY’VE SPENT THE PAST YEAR PUT TING THE PIECES OF PRIDE BACK TOGETHER

F

Jamie Hyman

or a WHile THere, THings lookeD so bleak that some were concerned that Orlando Pride was dead.

In November of 2014, the Come Out With Pride Board was suspended, its executive director fired and being investigated for fraud. The books were a disaster and the Metropolitan Business Association – COWP’s umbrella organization – was working overtime to try to untangle the mess and get COWP back on track.

Nearly a year later, and less than a month away from COWP 2015, things are looking much sunnier, and organizers are daring to venture that this might be the biggest, best Come Out With Pride

Orlando has seen yet.

“Our board of seven individuals, including six production-team members, are in a great place,” says Brian Riha, COWP president. “We’re feeling positive, we’re united. Our theme this year is ‘Pride United.’ We’re moving forward, and we’re setting the bar for a very exciting new pride event.”

Before getting into the past year and how much work it has taken to make sure COWP happens, a little history.

Originally, Orlando Pride was a

watermark Your lgbt life.

grassroots celebration, but things became official in 2005 when the MBA - Orlando’s gay Chamber of Commerce - formed Come Out With Pride as a 501c3. COWP did - and still does - operate as a subsidiary of the MBA. Initially MBA board members did double duty to keep Pride running, but in 2009, COWP split into a separate board, allowing both organizations to pursue their respective goals while supporting each other. In 2011, Mikael Audebert became COWP’s first executive director, and he and the board leveraged the event’s 501c3 status to attract national sponsors and record numbers of attendees.

However, it all fell apart in late 2014. Audebert had been

cOntinued On Pg. 30 | uu |

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marcHing Back: COWP has “United” since last year’s controversy. PhoTo BY JAKe sTeVeNs

| uu | COWP frOm Pg.27 both executive director of COWP and president of the MBA, but he resigned from the MBA in October of 2014, with the goal of turning his attention to COWP and divorcing the event from the MBA. The COWP Board voted to sever from the MBA soon after, but the MBA Board stepped in, fired Audebert, and reclaimed control of COWP. Since then, there have been investigations, accusation of fraud, lawsuit threats... and through it all, a long year of hard work for the still-dedicated team of COWP and MBA volunteers determined to first preserve, and then improve, their beloved hometown Pride celebration.

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watermark Your lgbt life.

Step one was getting COWP’s financial house in order.

“We’ve worked hard all year to get it there,” says Michael Thomas, COWP finance director, a founding COWP board member who returned to help get the organization back

on its feet.

“We had a couple processes,” Thomas says.

“First was starting fresh: [We] opened all new accounts so we didn’t have any baggage. Then we looked at all the past debts, got that in order, asked people for forgiveness or if they wanted to sponsor or trade their debt.”

Thomas reports that has been wildly successful, with nearly $20,000 in debts erased or traded out.

In fact, headed into COWP 2015, they’ve already prepaid the city its $27,000 fee for use of Lake Eola Park plus additional charges for security, barricades and other city services.

“Our goal this year is to pay all services preevent,” Thomas says. “We’re definitely on track. In fact, we’ll even have a little extra money going into the event, which is going to be a good thing.”

A good chunk of that money came from sponsorships.

“We’ve just been kicking butt at fundraising and sponsorships,” Thomas says. “We’ve plateaued at over the $100,000 mark.”

He mentions Bud Light as a big one, with $15,000,

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and Macy’s came in as the parade sponsor to the tune of $10,000.

“We took a look at this year, sponsors, [and] we are way above what our goalsetting was and we’re really excited that a lot of the corporations feel that the movement from marriage equality is just one step.

And they’re still behind the LGBT community to continue that movement forward toward diversity and inclusion,” Riha says.

“We’ve had sponsors that weren’t a part of it last year who are on board this year; we’ve had sponsors who have come back to us.”

And weeks from the event, there may be more.

“We still have some sponsorships that have been promised that haven’t come in yet,” Thomas says.

everything in its Place

Step two was making sure everyone involved understood that, although Come Out With Pride is a subsidiary of the MBA, they are separate organizations with separate finances and separate missions. When Thomas came on board, he says the two organizations’

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| uu | COWP frOm Pg.30

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books were mixed up, and that was a problem that needed to be solved.

“They’re not supposed to have mixed finances,” Thomas says. “Pride is a 501c3 and MBA is a 501c6. You have to have separate books.”

Once the money was sorted, there was still some untangling to do.

“We had several long meetings at beginning of this year to make sure we understand this,” says Nayte Carrick, MBA president, emphasizing the organization’s separate missions.

For the record, COWP’s mission is a bulleted list that covers fellowship, communication, financial giving through grants, providing positive role models and foremost: “To produce an annual pride event that fosters a sense of community, encourages LGBTQ+ citizens to live openly and with pride, and educates the general public of our shared cultural heritage.”

MBA’s mission: “To lead the way for development, advocacy and growth of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender business community and its allies. We will accomplish this through building our small businesses, working with professionals in corporations, supporting our nonprofits and encouraging the general community to support those that support their rights.”

They have distinctly different goals, but, the organizations still support each other. Carrick says the MBA designated their monthly mixer raffle proceeds to COWP, and also donated the money raised through the silent auction at the Pride Gala, MBA’s annual awards banquet.

“I think to date we have so far raised about $13,000 for [COWP] to go toward this year’s event,” Carrick says.

The cross-organizational support goes beyond dollars.

Carrick says members of both organizations have made an effort to attend each other’s board meetings and events and MBA board members are planning to volunteer at the COWP event.

“This is a very collaborative effort between the two organizations, and we really have a family feeling,” Carrick says. “It’s really great to see the pride team participating in our events, and we’re really excited to participate Sep t emb er 24 - Oc tOb er 7, 2015 // ISSue 2 2. 20

in theirs. We’re able to maintain the missions of our organizations while working together.”

“From the MBA side it’s been a large amount of work to pull [COWP] through the year and make the changes necessary to make it really strong,” Carrick continues, adding that rededicating the organizations to their boundaries has ultimately made the MBA a better organization.

“We’ve really turned our focus to how to help provide value to our members,” Carrick says, as opposed to working on increasing membership or making money.

“I know that the people on the Pride board feel the same way,” he says. “They really are doing this for the community. I think that when you show up to the Pride event his year you’ll really feel that.”

Pride gives bacK cOmes bacK

Step three was reviving the part of Pride that invests in the local LGBT community - Pride Gives Back. Under the direction of the previous executive director, the grants and scholarship program had become neglected.

“The whole reason why we hold this event is it’s an opportunity for the LGBT community in general, in addition to the allies, to provide support and one of our main missions is to give back to the community through scholarships and grants,” Riha says.

Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan jumpstarted the return of Pride Gives Back with a city grant for $5,000, with $3,000 of that earmarked for scholarships to be awarded to LGBT students.

“We’ll be giving away three $1,000 scholarships, students are applying right now, we’ll be selecting those three and Commissioner Sheehan will present them at the event,” Thomas says.

Sheehan says COWP used to be a “problem child” but she hopes her contribution helped turn things around.

“This is what happens in nonprofits, this is what happens in government: People start fighting over money,” Sheehan says. “You lose sense of what’s happening and get obsessed with the money. I’m not that much involved. I hope everything gets worked out. I hope they concentrate on getting the parade

this is a very collaborative effort between the two organizations, and we really have a family feeling.

We’re able to maintain the missions of our organizations while working together.

—nayTe carrick, mBa presiDenT

WisH granTeD: COWP is getting back to giving back using the event to fund grants and scholarships.

Walk THis Way: A new layout will make it easier to get around the festival.

PhoTo BY JAKe sTeVeNs

PhoTo BY JAKe sTeVeNs

back together, which is what I’ve tried to help them do.”

In addition to the scholarships, Pride Gives Back is reviving its grant program, which runs all year. The application is available right now at ComeOutWithPride. org. Grants will be awarded with focus on three areas: education, economic development and health & wellness.

“So depending on how profitable the event is, clearing out all of our old debt and seeing where we are after that, we hope to give a decent amount of grants to the organizations,” Thomas says. “They can apply throughout the year but we will issue the grants in the month of November.”

He says it’s tough to call how much grant money they’ll give out, because it depends heavily on how well the Pride event does as a fundraiser and that depends on many factors such as weather,

attendance, bar revenue and ticket sales for the VIP dinner and fireworks.

Pride united… and reimagined

Finally, now that Pride was back on its feet, COWP board members got to do the fun stuff – looking at Prides past and making the changes intended to make the upcoming Pride event even better.

“The goal this year was with Pride United being two different aspects,” Thomas says. “One, uniting the organization together from a tough year, getting ourselves back on our feet and in the black. The second part was bringing the community together.”

He says the board designated some ‘Pride United’ organizations, such as The Wedding Alliance and Human Rights Campaign, and gave them all free vendor

space. The Wedding Alliance is performing two weddings at the event, one in the morning and one in the evening, and they’re looking for couples to get married right now.

“It’s a monumental year,” Thomas says. “It’s a perfect year for this.”

Riha says last year, the focus was domestic partner registries, but this year, it’s all about marriage equality.

“We know as the LGBT community [same-sex marriage is] just one step,” Riha says.

“There’s many more hurdles we have to jump. We’re still moving forward and supporting those organizations here locally that are driving out those changes at the state and national level.”

He says Pride specifically is doing so through the Pride Gives Back program, and he’s hoping their success with sponsors will

watermark Your lgbt life.

allow them the funds to support those organizations through more and bigger grants.

COWP’s 2015 Grand Marshal is Ginger Minj, who came in second place on the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. When asked about the process behind that selection, Riha says, “It just made sense that we had a local person who was representingOrlando, cared about our community, is part of our community, it just made sense to recognize that as a grand marshal.”

In addition to her role in the parade, Minj will perform at a COWP Church Street Station party Friday night, plus both she and Jordin Sparks are part of the line-up at Parliament House, which hosts Pride celebrations all weekend long.

One big difference Pride attendees will notice this year is the layout of the park on

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festival day. Riha says their 100+ sponsors will be set up in the grassy area on the northeast corner of Lake Eola, “creating a sponsor walk, allowing them to showcase their brand and their commitment to our community.”

“We’ve taken a look at the ways in previous years congestion happened, revamped things to make it easier to get into the park and not having to squeeze by people on pathway into the park,” he adds, saying they “restructured layout ofthe park in a more impactful and exciting new way.”

Thomas says he’s “very proud” of where Pride is right now.

“People thought we wouldn’t be supported, and it’s quite the opposite,” he says. “We’ve had great support and I’d like to say we did it. It’s still a month out but we’re in really good shape.”

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arts and entertainment

A convenient trUth F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T O F C O N V E R S I O N -T H E R A P Y C H U R C H E X O D U S I N T E R N AT I O N A L P U B L I S H E S A B O O K , A P O L O G I Z E S

T

Billy Manes

Here’s a sly proDucTion

moment, a flash of informed camerawork, during a remarkable 2013 special on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network, “Our America with Lisa Ling: Special Report: God and Gays,” (still on YouTube). A look of disbelief caught in frame.

Former reparative-therapy icon Alan Chambers, in full-court apology mode with wife Leslie at his side (they married in 1998 and have two daughters), tries to make sense of more than a decade of heading up conversion-therapy church Exodus International, which was located in Central Florida, with a mea culpa. He was wrong, he

says, as he stares into the faces of a gathered gaggle of former patients (for lack of a better word). He came to OWN to sit in front of that jury who, he says, haven’t had their fair shake in contributing to the conversation on his “side” of the argument, which, of course, is the side of the Christian right. It’s a weak apology, really, one that came

watermark Your lgbt life.

only a couple of months after his notorious public statement, and the subsequent statement from the Exodus camp, that the ministry was over. It was all a big mistake, apparently.

The same message that was sent to the victims of Exodus at their most vulnerable stages of development, he now admits.

But Chambers doesn’t seem to carry apologies very well, and when he speaks of the terms that were used in his programs, or in the vague passive aggression of a publicized apology, there are visible winces from said jury. A woman smirks and shakes her head. A young man starts to cry. Lisa Ling is holding her own tissue. Fences aren’t quite mended.

The candidness speaks a lot more to the victims of an organization that for three decades shamed lesbians and gays into the idea that their sexuality was wrong, or worse, an abomination of God. You get the sense, even after nearly an hour, that no one on the show truly believes him. Should they?

On Sept. 29, Chambers, along with his wife, releases My Exodus: From Fear to Grace on Zondervan, a Christian imprint of the HarperCollins publishing family. The fact that he’s still riding the penance train, claiming to be poor, acknowledging his sexual orientation without living it honestly, well, none of it really

cOntinued On Pg. 38 | uu |

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| uu | Alan Chambers frOm Pg.37

helps him make a valid case. The book, which sometimes reads like a companion reader for a religious text and praises God on every dog-eared page, also finds Chambers seemingly praising himself a bit too much.

The anecdote he utilizes to explain his change of heart, as if a change of heart would save countless ruined lives, involves a boy named Matt who he imported from California to work for Exodus.

“I’ll never be like you,” Matt reportedly says, crestfallen and morosely playing with the zipper on his hoodie.

“I am so sorry I’ve made all of this seem easier than it is,” Chambers eventually replies. “As of today, I won’t do that again.

Your goal shouldn’t be to be like me. Straight isn’t the answer.”

Well, Chambers knows a little more about answering these days, and he agreed to speak with Watermark about his past, Exodus, Leslie, human rights and numerous other things that are directly related to his previous work.

WATERMARK: i sPent the weeKend with MY EXODUS AND i thOught it was really wellwritten, tO be hOnest. i feel liKe yOu have cOme tO Peace with a lOt Of things. alan chambers: Thanks, I had help. Leslie is not bad herself.

We collaborated on the whole thing. It was nice to do that.

tell me a little bit abOut hOw that came abOut Or what her reactiOn was when yOu decided that yOu were gOing tO dO this.

Well, when we closed Exodus, the morning after we heard from literally thousands of people.

And in the midst of most of those being media folks who wanted an interview, there were about a dozen publishers who wanted us to write something for them, and then, over the course of the next months that number doubled. So we felt like this was a really good opportunity to share our thoughts and our story and we began writing pretty quickly and it took probably the better part of a year to just get something finished and it was sort of a journal entry meets manuscript sort of thing and a lot of opinion and when we

38

reparaTive repuTaTion: Former Exodus International President Alan Chambers has a new book aimed at apologizing for conversion therapy.

PhoTo CoURTesY AlAN ChAMBeRs

turned in our manuscript after we signed with Zondervan and HarperCollins they came back to us and said, “You know, this is great. This is probably book number two, though. We feel like you have been on a stage for at least the last 12 years at Exodus sharing your opinion. People just want to hear your story. So why don’t you go back, start over from scratch and just do a story?” At points where I felt hesitant to write something, Leslie would say, “You just need to go ahead and write this.” Or she would edit something and go further than I went. It is nice to have a partner in life like her who’s as willing to risk sharing everything as I am. So that’s just kind of how we are.

reParative theraPy is sOmething President Obama sPOKe Out against this year. legislatiOn has already Passed in califOrnia. what are yOur feelings On the legislatiOn?

You know, I think it’s definitely a part of the progression. We turned in this manuscript, maybe in February or March, and then

I wrote on that. I think it was in April after the president encouraged for a ban on reparative therapy for minors.

I agree wholeheartedly. I think there needs to be a ban on reparative therapy for minors.

I think it is a dangerous threat to subject kids to what will only lead to shame, telling them that

i actually Just watched the whOle Own netwOrK dOcumentary which was sOrt Of MEA CULPA situatiOn in which yOu sat in frOnt Of a Panel Of PeOPle. dO yOu feel liKe yOu turned a cOrner?

come the opportunities to say more. This was a story and not an opinion piece. But there have been opportunities since then for opinion pieces: opinion pieces on reparative therapy; opinion pieces on the passage of gay marriage.

We’ll have opportunities to speak in the future, where we got further with things that didn’t end up in the book. So, we’re glad to be on a journey and we’re grateful when people ask for our thoughts on things knowing full well we’re human and imperfect.

watermark Your lgbt life.

they can expect an outcome of a changed orientation or a diminishment of attraction that they have. For adults, I find it a little more difficult to say I think we should absolutely ban it. I think adults have the right to choose for themselves. I do wholeheartedly agree with the sanctions and the restrictions and I think there need to be more of those when you sit down in the office of a counselor or therapist or anyone, you are given a dutyto-warn sheet that says we cannot change sexual orientation. We may hope we can change it, but we cannot change it. Science says this is impossible. So we will not tell you this is going to be even a possible outcome for you. I do not want to see pastors or parents hindered in their ability to encourage kids in their faith tradition. But I also think we need to be very, very clear, very, very careful that this is not something that happens. Sexual orientation is not something that changes. And people don’t go to hell for being gay. And so I hope there will be a whole lot more discussion and conversation and

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that this conversation won’t end until everyone hears the good news that God loves everyone.

And that kids and adults alike aren’t shamed into believing that they’re less of a human being because they are gay or lesbian or transgender or anything like that.

i thinK yOu and i are abOut the same age. i’m 43.

I’m 43.

yOu KnOw hOw Primitive sOme Of these Practices Of reParative theraPy have been in the Past, i’m sure. shOcK theraPy, fOr instance. i’m gOing tO gO PersOnal On yOu fOr a secOnd and say that my Partner Of 11 years Killed himself three years agO. he was fOrced intO reParative theraPy in geOrgia by his Parents, sO i KnOw a lOt Of bacKgrOund On this, and it maKes me sad tO even talK abOut it.

Sure. I’m sorry. cOntinued On Pg. 40 | uu |

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39

unconditionally and so these are things we feel like are worth arguing about. We’re not debaters and we’re not people who like to fight. But these are things that we will stake our reputation on to be very clear about, from our perspective, the dangers of reparative therapy and the ongoing onslaught of Christian propaganda in this realm.

| uu | Alan Chambers frOm Pg.38

yOu bring uP in the interviews that tO sOme degree yOu accePt that it is yOur fault. yOu made the cOmParative reference tO the PileuP that yOu caused On a highway and hOw, even if yOu weren’t maliciOus in yOur heart, yOu had negatively affected PeOPle’s lives. hOw dO yOu atOne fOr that at this POint?

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The only thing I know to do in all of this was to take every step that I feel like I could take. The first of which was that revelation.

I’ll never forget the day that I was sitting in a parking lot having just come out of the grocery store, and I just had this – I was going over all of this type of stuff and I remember thinking I have to, as the president of Exodus, and this is probably a career killer, but I have to say I’m sorry. I have to say I’m sorry for the things that I’ve done, and I have to say I’m sorry for the things Exodus has done, and I have to apologize for things I would have never done. But being who I am and in the position, there is no one else who’s going to do this and we have to do this. So that’s kind of been our reality the last couple of years is at every opportunity. I don’t think I’ll ever get to a place where I don’t say I’m sorry to someone who’s telling me their story for the first time.

And I think that’s helpful and what I’ve heard from people, whether it’s been on national television or just sitting in a coffee shop on Park Avenue talking to a gay couple, or parents or you name it. I feel like that’s benefited people, and I feel like it’s an encouragement for others to step out of the shadows and say they’re sorry as well. So that’s part of what I do.

Another part of what I do is people still ask my opinion, and I still have a

voice, and when I get the opportunity, or even if people don’t ask, I just take the opportunity to say I think this is a dangerous practice. I don’t think that anyone ever should go through reparative therapy, whether they’re an adult or a kid. I don’t think pastors or anyone should tell people that they can change their sexual orientation, or that they’ll be acceptable to God if they’re celibate, or you name it. i fOund it interesting that yOu brOught uP miKe hucKabee and Jerry falwell and Jeb bush as yOur friends in yOur bOOK, and all Of these PeOPle are against marriage eQuality. it must be very difficult fOr yOu tO still KeeP hOnest relatiOns with them.

Most of our friends from conservative circles aren’t our friends anymore. You know, that ended when we closed Exodus and began distancing ourselves from all of the things we were involved with before, so a lot of people that we’re still friends with whom we disagree, when the conversation comes up, and it does, these are things that we’re very, very honest about. This is these are important issues to us.

We risked everything in order to be very honest, first and foremost about what we believe about God, which we find that to be the most important, significant part of our lives.

And God accepts and loves

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what dOes that say abOut the religiOus cOmmunity, the attacKs and the threats? i KnOw we see it all the time. it is in the headlines right nOw with [KentucKy clerK Of cOurts] Kim davis, whO is rePresented by mat staver whO runs the liberty cOunsel, a classified hate grOuP – and that’s why i brOught uP hucKabee befOre, because he was right by her side fOr all Of this. everyOne wants tO tell us that the church is evOlving, the right is evOlving. and a lOt Of my rePublican friends are evOlved On this issue. but when there are attacKs cOming at yOu, it is frightening. that dOesn’t sPeaK tO Jesus, really, dOes it?

Definitely doesn’t speak to Jesus at all, and I don’t think it speaks to the majority of the church.

What I find is the church is evolving, but the leadership and the old guard … are way out of step and way out of touch with the people in the congregation. What I find is there’s a lot of fear in the congregations to say anything that goes against what maybe is coming from the top. But there’s a lot of resistance, and there’s more and more people who are stepping out and saying things that are riveting really. …

But I think that what we see most often is that the church is misrepresented by the people who are on television, you know, the Huckabees, the people who

cOntinued On Pg. 42 | uu |

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| uu | Alan Chambers from pg.40

are standing next to Kim Davis and spouting this old line of rhetoric that really doesn’t match up with a lot of the people sitting in the pews on Sunday.

We should be clear that you did that for 12 years

Oh, of course, yeah. I’m not an innocent bystander. When people talk about the harm that was done at Exodus and things like that, I nod my head yes and absolutely agree, but I think the deeper problem is that we were all so entrenched in religion. We were so entrenched in a Christianity that was not godly, that was not Christlike, we misrepresented him. And I think that frankly, God’s gotten a bad name, a bad rap because of Christians like me who spouted rhetoric that was not rooted in truth, and when we see that what we’re saying is true, we have an absolute responsibility and mandate to say “I was wrong and I’m moving forward.” And that’s really what Leslie and I have done.

Do you think that the church in general, or what we know as the religious right, will ever evolve on this?

I don’t want to watch people fight.

I don’t want to be involved in a fight. I just want to go out and love people and enjoy people for who they are, and on the day that the Supreme Court passed the marriage legislation, I watched, and I was struck because what I saw on the steps of the Supreme Court. All of the coverage was a bunch of people invoking the name of God, saying they were thankful to God for the passage of gay marriage and people were crying. People were hugging and there were spontaneous patriotic songs being sung, and I thought how the majority of the church, or at least a portion of the church, is going to look at this as a negative thing. And where I sit and I feel lucky to be sitting here watching one of the greatest displays of patriotism and church that I’ve seen in decades. And I thought that’s, this is gay marriage, this is something God will use, in my opinion, for his good. … I felt as a Christian, and as an American, as someone who has been deeply impacted and touched by this issue, I felt hopeful.

You documented it a little bit in the book, but was there

42

Sexual orientation is not something that changes.

A n d people don’t go to hell for being gay. a panic moment in any of this where in 2013 you made your statement, and then Exodus made its statement and everything was gone?

Was there a palpable panic between you and Leslie and a fear for your life?

I don’t think a fear for our life, but certainly a fear that I remember waking up to the morning after the announcement. I made the announcement on stage. I walk off stage and go talk to the Atlantic.

Then 4 a.m. the next morning rolls around, and I wake up and think, “Oh my God, what just happened?

What is this going to be like?” And there was a fear in my heart in that moment that I had just changed everything. I just remember laying there and this wave of panic just setting in feeling sick to my stomach and kind of beginning to toss and turn and in that moment in the darkness. Leslie reached over, touched my shoulder, and she said, “You did the right thing.” … There was no more fear. There was no more anxiety over any of that. It was just, hey this was right and the road ahead is going to be difficult, but it was always difficult and we are going to keep moving forward.

You claim that you guys are financially insecure toward the end of the book, because you don’t know where the next paycheck’s coming from.

How is that working out now?

For years, we made good money, and felt what probably every single other person in felt. There’s always the thought of, “How can we make more and how can we get more?”

What we’ve found, and what we feel very fortunate to have found, is we’ve learned how to live on a whole lot less: next to nothing.

And so I hope there will be a whole lot more discussion and conversation and that this conversation won’t end until everyone hears the good news that God loves everyone. … It’s been good. It’s been a good thing for us. You know, a number of critics and friends, when we closed Exodus and I was doing media, said things like, “You know what, Alan?

You just need to step off the stage for a couple of years. You need to just relax and go do something else.” And that’s what we’ve done.

It’s been good for us to live outside of the land of plenty and in a land of want, realizing we can live here, we can survive here, and without all of the things that cushioned our life before. The most important things that remain and I think my family is stronger for it. Leslie and I are stronger, and our two ten year-olds haven’t been deprived.

We feel fortunate to have lived this part of the story as well and we wouldn’t trade it.

What are your feelings on the Uganda nightmare of gay persecution, and the way that’s been played concurrently with missions and religion?

I think it’s horrible. I thought the moment we realized what was really going on and realized how we as an organization have impacted that, we did our best to sort of see into that. So I feel like even when I was in, as the president of Exodus, in South

watermark Your lgbt life.

And that kids and adults alike aren’t shamed into believing that they’re less of a human being because they are gay or lesbian or transgender or —Alan Chambers anything like that.

Africa, and had the opportunity to speak to a number of bishops form Africa, I was telling them don’t make the same mistakes that America made. Don’t make the same mistakes in doing what you’re doing and persecuting gay and lesbian people, because in the end it will destroy lives, but it will also come back to really bite you in the butt. You don’t want to. You don’t want this. This is wrong. This is not how Jesus would treat people.

The timing of the release and the Winter Park book-release party on Oct. 2, it’s the same week as Come Out With Pride.

Is that something that you think you will march in this year? I know somebody mentioned you ought to march in it in the lisa ling profile with an “Exodus is

Sep t emb er 24 - Oc tob er 7, 2015 // Issue 2 2. 20

Sorry” sign. I don’t know if that sounds too ambitious, but is that something that you would do? Would you march in a pride parade?

Maybe if I had a lot of friends with me.

That’s the best answer ever.

I sort of feel, I mean it feels like both a challenge and something I don’t know, the thing. Any time that we’ve gone to any type of gay church or gay event, I’ve wanted to make sure that we were wanted there. That we weren’t going to be a distraction or something that caused anyone any more pain. The last thing I would want to do is be seen as someone who capitalizes on an opportunity. I don’t.

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film

Brick Layers New Stonewall film incites a publicity riot

(LEFT)

do you hear the people sing?: The cast of Stonewall.

Photo by Philippe Bossé

T

Lawrence Ferber

he issue of who threw the first

brick at 1969’s Stonewall riots, which launched the modern LGBT rights movement and annual pride parades, has been a point of controversy and disagreement long before director Roland Emmerich’s new film of the same name. Yet Emmerich, best known for bombastic, special effects-laden Hollywood disaster popcorn blockbusters like Independence Day and Day After Tomorrow is the first to warn that audiences shouldn’t regard this key moment in his film as a representation of historical fact. watermark Your lgbt life.

“We said, let’s make a movie about Stonewall and try to be as entertaining and accurate about it as possible, but it’s a [narrative] movie, not a documentary,” he explains.

“When you look at a movie like Titanic, at the end the Titanic goes down, but the rest is a love story between a rich girl and poor artist.

Those characters were probably never on the Titanic, but that’s where it happened. Our story takes place [partly] in this club Stonewall, and our main character, Danny, learns about what’s going on, [what it’s like] to be gay in NYC, from these homeless kids, falls in love and learns to survive.”

Written by out screenwriter Jon

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Robin Baitz, Stonewall follows the journey of Danny (Jeremy Irvine), a teen from the small town Midwest who hightails it to Manhattan after his father gives him the boot for being gay. Once arrived at the city’s gay mecca, Christopher Street, Danny falls in with a clique of rowdy homeless LGBTQ sex workers, including a Puerto Rican “scare queen” Ray/Ramona (Jonny Beauchamp), sassy African-American Cong (Vlad Alexis) and genderbending hippie Orphan Annie (Caleb Landry Jones). Stonewall Inn is their hub, and where Danny meets and Continued on pg. 46 | uu |

45

Got Mustard?

We’ve got more weiner than we can handle.

www.DareToRescue.com on my oWn: Jonny Beauchamp as Ray in Stonewall. PhoTo BY PhiliPPe Bossé

| uu | Stonewall frOm Pg.45

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falls for older Mattachine Society activist Trevor (Jonathan Rhys Myers), who despises Danny’s friends and their flamboyance.

Add corrupt cops, homophobia, and a mafia-run prostitution ring, and it all combusts on a balmy June night during a police raid on the Stonewall.

Spoiler alert: Danny does in fact throw the first brick in the movie.

He’s motivated to do so when a lesbian is carried away by police and urges the angry gay crowd to do something, which did actually happen in real life. But those who suspect the film is a “whitewashing” based upon the trailer (see sidebar) will find that not to be the case at all.

Stonewall’s cast is diverse ethnically and in sexual/gender identities (including “scare queens,” feminine males who couldn’t afford proper drag get-ups yet wore eyeliner and whatever else they could cobble together), and Emmerich and team decided to include quite a few characters drawn directly from history, including black drag queen/ activist Martha P. Johnson, played

by Nigerian-American actor Otojo Abit; Ray/Ramona is a composite of Puerto Ricans Silvia Rivera, a drag queen and transgender activist and Ray Castro; and Cong, portrayed

by African-Canadian newcomer Vlad Alexis.

Despite the fact Danny throws the brick, a turning point in his character’s arc and an embracing of his sexuality and friendships, “it’s Cong’s brick,” notes Alexis. Openly gay, Alexis is a native of Montreal, where the film was shot. A detailed Sep t emb er 24 - Oc tOb er 7, 2015 // ISSue 2 2. 20

replica of 1960s-era Christopher Street and Stonewall Inn was constructed within a giant building.

Cong, who always carries a brick in a handbag for larcenous activities, is based on real-life Stonewall participant Congo Woman, chronicled in David Carter’s excellent non-fiction Stonewall tome. Alexis describes Congo Woman as “a nasty black drag queen that steals things, throws bricks and breaks windows just to survive.”

“I also took inspiration from so many other trans and queer kids out there,” he elaborates. “The documentary Paris Is Burning, and Jason Holliday, who was a black artist back in the 60s [and subject of the 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason]. For me, it’s not important who threw the first brick, because the fight was already happening [by the time it was thrown]. We don’t have to praise a specific person.”

The UK-born Irvine, who previously starred in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, admits that he was only peripherally aware of the Stonewall rebellion when he took on the role. Once cast, he immersed himself in research and drew personal inspiration and details from someone involved with the production. He won’t name the person, but says they shared their coming out letter with him. While Irvine also declines to divulge whether he ever questioned his own sexuality, he freely admits that his mother is pleased that Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays his onscreen love interest. “My mom says you couldn’t choose someone better to have your first gay sex scene with.”

Unlike his film’s hayseed protagonist, Emmerich was born into a relatively wealthy German family, and his own coming out took

TRAILER

CAMP Two Stonewalls, Two Controversies

T masTers of THe House: Jonny Beauchamp as Ray and Vladimir Alexis as Cong in Stonewall. PhoTo BY PhiliPPe Bossé place comparatively late. “I didn’t want to become a ‘gay director’ because in Germany when you were a gay director I couldn’t have done the movies I wanted to do,” he recalls. He arrived in the USA at age thirty-three, fell in love with another man, and, later feeling much freer in his personal and professional life, considered making a gay-themed film.

It was during a tour of Los Angeles’ Gay & Lesbian Center that Emmerich learned that forty percent of today’s homeless youth are LGBTQ. Upon digging into Stonewall’s history, and the critical role homeless youth played in the riot, he whipped up the film’s story outline.

Hollywood didn’t exactly embrace the idea of backing such a film, so Emmerich financed Stonewall independently with friends, and brought on Baitz as screenwriter. He also enlisted surviving Stonewall witnesses to speak with the film’s actors, and insisted that all extras taking part in the riot scene be LGBTidentified (when Emmerich learned that some straight extras were unhappy having to dance with other men during Stonewall Inn scenes, they were fired, Alexis shares). “Montreal has a big gay population, and I insisted that everyone who is part of this riot has to be gay, and there was some real anger there,” Emmerich says.

“For two or three days they were pumped. A couple of times we said

We said, let’s make a movie about Stonewall and try to be as entertaining and accurate about it as possible, but it’s a [narrative] movie,

not a documentary.

When you look at a movie like Titanic, at the end the titanic goes down, but the rest is a love story between a rich girl and poor artist. those characters were probably never on the titanic, but —sToneWall DirecTor rolanD emmericH that’s where it happened. ‘stop’ with a megaphone and it took a while to stop them.”

Apparently, some of the stars, including Irvine, Jones, and Alexis, retained their characters’ more rowdy, sassy traits offscreen, especially while enjoying downtime in Montreal’s famed gay village.

“I told my friends before I started doing the project, I might not see you much this summer because I will be unbearable,” Alexis recalls, laughing. “Cong is such a strong character who has no fucks to give. Without naming names, we went to a gay strip joint and someone [from our group] threw a glass of water at

the stripper dancing. It was sort of a Flashdance tribute. He didn’t receive it that well, and I needed to go speak to him in French and explain we are doing a movie and in our own heads! He understood and we shook hands after.”

The movie, despite any factual controversies that may result, Stonewall’s legacy has already imprinted itself on the filmmakers.

The day after wrapping, Irvine visited New York’s real Stonewall Inn—“it was like I was back on the film set but for real, we got horribly drunk and danced the night away!” And an empowered Emmerich ensured there are LGBT characters in his upcoming

watermark Your lgbt life.

Independence Day sequel (he declines to share details beyond, “I have a couple of them”).

Meanwhile, Alexis, who recently shot a cameo in Bryan Singer’s next X-Men film, admits he would have liked to keep a physical memoir of Stonewall—specifically, Cong’s brick.

“I wish I could have!” he laments. “But this was my first movie and you never know what you can take or not and I don’t want to be someone who steals from the set. That would be like taking Cong to another level.

Some crazy method acting to steal from the set.”

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he STONEWALL Trailer receiveD a sTanDing ovaTion at the GLAAD Media Awards in March, where Emmerich received the Stephen F. Kolzak Award for his work in promoting equality, so when it debuted to the public in early August, resulting in calls for a boycott of the film, Emmerich was completely surprised by this completely different, outraged reception.

“I was upset, I have to admit,” he shares, “but one of our investors, who is very involved in marriage equality, he’s already happy because we said, you have to bring attention to Stonewall because kids these days don’t know nothing. Already we made our goal—people are talking about who threw bricks, who was there and not.”

A 1995 film of the same name, directed by the late Nigel Finch and written by black gay British screenwriter Rikki Beadle-Blair (he also co-wrote Patrik-Ian Polk’s recent Blackbird) and based on Martin Duberman’s book, also stirred up some controversy in its day, although mostly concerning its historical accuracy and emphasis on drag queens (Guillermo Diaz, who has since come out publicly, costarred as a headstrong Latino drag queen, La Miranda).

Beadle-Blair politely declined to be interviewed for Stonewallrelated articles, while Emmerich says of Finch’s 1995 film, “his was more like a musical. We have a totally different take, and it was entertaining, but I wanted to tell another story.”

—Lawrence Ferber

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ON VIEW NOW AT THE MFA

Tip Toland (American, b. 1950), Milk for the Butter Thief (detail), 2008, stoneware, paint, pastel, and wool, Gift of Mindy and Michael Solomon in honor of the Museum’s 50th Anniversary, Image courtesy of the artist

Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

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event Planner

arts+entertainment

commUnity calendar

OrlandO

melbOurne

la Maschera Goes Disco!, Sept. 25, The Abbey, Orlando..407-704-626; AbbeyOrlando.com

Space coast pride kick-off party

Nick Jonas, Sept. 26, House of Blues, Orlando. 407-934-2583; HouseOfBlues.com

friDay, sepT. 25, 7:00 p.m. sQuiD lips overWaTer Bar & grill, melBourne Start your Space Coast Pride weekend off right at the official kick-off party at Squid Lips Overwater Bar & Grill in Melbourne. $5 admission gets you in and includes first drink, appetizers and a book signing by former U.S. House Representative and prominent gay politician Barney Frank. Visit www.spacecoastpride.org for tickets.

Artlando, Sept. 26, Loch Haven Park, Orlando.

407-377-0400; Artlando.com orlando Pride - search Party, Sept. 27, Ember, Orlando. 407-849-5200; ComeOutWithPride.org Greater orlando equality Connection, Sept. 29, Pilars Martini, Winter Garden.

813-870-3735; eqfl.org Nephew Tommy, Oct. 2, Walt Disney Theater, Orlando. 844-513-2014; DrPhillipsCenter.org You Can’t Take It With You, Oct. 2 – Oct. 25, The Harriett Theatre, Mad Cow Theatre, Orlando. 407-297-8788; MadCowTheatre.com

life’s meaning

orlandoiX, Oct. 2 - 6, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando. 321-622-2900; OrlandoiX.com Thriller 80s Party, Oct. 3, Parliament House, Orlando. 407-452-7571; ParliamentHouse.com Monday Night Cabaret: Andrea Canny, Oct. 5, The Abbey, Orlando. 407-704-6261; AbbeyOrlando.com D’Angelo, Oct., 5, House of Blues, Orlando. 407-934-2583; HouseOfBlues.com orlando Ballet: Uncorked at the Abbey, Oct. 6 – April 5, The Abbey, Orlando. 844-513-2014; DrPhillipsCenter.org National Night out!, Oct. 6, Public Safety Facility, Winter Park. 404-599-3233; CityOfWinterPark.org Parachute, Oct. 7, Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater, Orlando. 844-513-2014; DrPhillipsCenter.org spotlight Cabaret: Marina Jurica, Oct. 7- 8, Winter Park Playhouse, Winter Park. 407-645-0145; WinterParkPlayhouse.com

tamPa bay

tIGLFF presents Lea DeLaria saTurDay, ocT. 3, 6:00 p.m.

THe pallaDium, sT. peTersBurg TIGLFF welcomes Lea DeLaria of Orange is the New Black fame as their special guest. DeLaria will entertain the crowd with comedy, instrumental and vocal performances. The show begins with local opening act, Scott and Patti, at 6:00 P.M. with DeLaria to follow. Doors open at 5:30 P.M. Tickets start at $35 and can be purchased at www.tiglff.com.

laKeland

Monty Python creators and comedic legends John Cleese and eric idle kick off the tour of John Cleese & Eric Idle: Together Again At Last…For The Very First Time Oct. 1-2 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota. PhoTo CoURTesY oF CleeseANDiDle.CoM

tamPa bay Balance Tampa Bay social, Sept. 24, The Getaway, St. Petersburg. 727-317-5751; BalanceTampaBay.org Pride skate, Sept. 24, United Skates, Tampa. 813-876-5826; UnitedSkates.com/Tampa Billy idol, Sept. 24, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater. 727-441-2863; RuthEckerdHall.com Fiddler on the Roof, Sept. 25 – October 18, Moonlight Players, Clermont. 352-243-5875; MoonlightPlayers.com G2h2 st. Pete, Sept. 25, Nouvelle Beauty Bar, St. Petersburg. 727-896-2700; NovelleBeautyBar.com Pet Pride, Sept. 26, Flamingo, St. Petersburg. 727-321-5000; FlamingoFla.com

Fall Drag olympics, Sept.

27, Flamingo, St. Petersburg.

727-321-5000; FlamingoFla.com TBAC @ Yogurtology on Gandy, Sept. 29, Tampa. 813-839-4200; TheSmartRide.org TiGlFF, Oct. 2- 10, The Palladium, St. Petersburg.

813-879-4220; tiglff.com

TFo Masterworks: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Oct. 3, The Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg.

727-893-7832; TheMahaffey.com Pride Day with the Tampa Bay Bucs, Oct. 4, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa. 813-350-6500; RaymondJamesStadium.com

straz liVe! on the River – open house Party!, Oct. 3, Straz Center, Tampa. 813-229-7827; StrazCenter.org

Ani DiFranco, Oct. 7, Capitol Theatre, Clearwater. 727-791-7400; RuthEckerdHall.com

Tampa Bay’s Dancing with the stars, Oct. 3, TPepin’s Hospitality Centre, Tampa. 727-573-7720; HandsAcrossTheBay.org

sarasOta

The Importance of Being Earnest with Zombies, Oct. 3 – Nov. 1, freefall Theatre, St. Petersburg. 727-498-5205; FreeFallTheatre.com

John Cleese & eric idle, Oct. 1- 2, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Sarasota. 1-800-826-9303; VanWezel.org 29th Annual Taste of Manatee, Oct. 3- 4, Sutton Park, Palmetto. 941-773-5060; TasteOfManatee.com

To submit your upcoming event, concert, performance, or fundraiser visit watermarkonline.com.

watermark Your lgbt life.

2nd Annual polk pride Fall Gala saTurDay, ocT. 3, 7:00 p.m. lake mirror ToWer, lakelanD Come out come out, wherever you are. The official fundraising launch for Polk Pride 2016 starts with a kick-off at Lake Mirror Tower in Lakeland.

Head on out to enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres with an elegant evening themed around the Hollywood classic, Wizard of Oz. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at www.polkpridefl.com.

OrlandO

the center’s 4th Annual black & White Gala saTurDay, ocT. 3, 7:00 p.m. orlanDo museum of arT, orlanDo The GLBT Center of Central Florida and John Michael Events invite you to take a trip back in time to the roaring 20’s with a Night at the Cotton Club.

This one night event will feature a four course sit down dinner, silent auction, dance floor, special performances and the Cotton Club Casino. Tickets are available at www.thecentergala.eventbrite.com.

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overheard

tamPa bay Out+abOut

eQfl celebrate bucs’ Pride day with a tailgate Party

F

ooTBall season is Here anD for THe seconD year in a roW the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will celebrate the LGBT community with a Pride Day at Raymond James Stadium. So dust off the black and red gear and make sure to get to the stadium bright and early on Oct. 4 because, before the Bucs tear apart the Carolina Panthers, Florida Equality is going to be tailgating. For those who are not familiar with this sport’s fan tradition, tailgating is a huge block party celebration in the parking lot before the game starts. Fans come out to socialize, do a little trash-talking about the other team and eat amazingly greasy and delicious foods out of trucks of people’s cars. Equality Florida will have their own private tailgate area (think Pride VIP service), so make sure to bust out the tailgate and come celebrate with the community. GO BUCS!

gardens by day, sin by night

M

ake sure To geT plenTy of resT on ocT. 16 because Oct. 17 is going to be a long, fun day for many. The day kicks off with the fourth annual Big Gay Gardens Day. It’s a day of family, fun and roller coasters at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay for the LGBT community. The organizers tell us this year is really nothing more than a bunch of families getting together for a day of fun in the park. In previous years, there have been pre-parties, after parties and fundraisers, but with so much going on in the community this year, they’ve kept it simple … SO FAR. Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as some surprises may be coming your way. Keep hydrated while you are out at the park, because that night is the 39th Annual All Hallows Masquerade Ball at District 3. This is a private, invite-only party, so if you are one of the lucky ones to get an invitation, and your endurance is strong, then this may be the best day of the year for you from sun up to sundown. Make sure if you are attending to pick your poison, because this year, #SinIsIn.

lOcal stars bust a mOve fOr charity

J

usT like in THe HiT aBc sHoW, Tampa Bay is putting on their blue-suede shoes for Dancing with the Stars 2015. Local celebrities will be pairing up with professional dancers from the Fred Astaire Dance Studio of Tampa Bay to perform live in front of a crowd of 600 fans at TPepin’s Hospitality Centre. Not only do you get to support your favorite celebrity, but you also get to help raise funds for Hands Across the Bay, My Hope Chest, Clothes To Kids and The Cypress Initiative; all charities helping across the Bay area. The celebrities range from local news talent to doctors and firefighters to one certain Equality Florida member who is sure to be a dancing powerhouse. So get your tickets, pick your champion and get to steppin’.

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piraTes of THe ciTy siDe lounge: (L-R) Adam Roland, Katie Nafe, C. Van os and Chou Chou Guilder pillage and plunder the top notch rum and eats at Tampa Pride’s “Walk the Plank” launch party at City Side Lounge Sept. 17.

PhoTo BY JeReMY WilliAMs

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Jock JamZ: Austin hagge (L) and Jose luis Marrero take the field for a blowout party at the “Nerds vs. Jocks” event at Southern Nights Tampa Sept. 19. Photo

CoURTesY oF Jose lUis MARReRo

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iT’s so HarD To say gooDBye: Kori stevens says goodbye as the house diva at Georgie’s Alibi in St. Petersburg Sept.

19. PhoTo BY BRUCe hARDiN

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Workplace eQualiTy: Dignidad y Trabajo (“Dignity and Work”), a campaign to raise awareness within the Hispanic community about the need for LGBT workplace protections, held a forum at Ana G. Mendez University in Tampa Sept. 10. Photo

CoURTesY oF JoYCe hAMilToN

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guys on film: (L-R) John laVeck, Don Kiceina, and Marc Retzlafftalk film and art at TIGLFF’s launch party at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg Sept. 12.

PhoTo BY JeReMY WilliAMs

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WHere evryBoDy kneW your name: The crowds gathered to toast one last drink during the final Happy Hour at Georgie’s Alibi in St. Petersburg Sept.

18. PhoTo BY BRUCe hARDiN

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Tangerine is THe neW faB: The Fabulous Independent Film Festival welcomed the festival’s opening night film, Tangerine, at the Burns Court Cinema in Sarasota Sept.

18. PhoTo BY JAKe sTeVeNs

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all sHook up: Rev. Brad Rice, associate pastor at King of Peace MCC in St. Pete, performs Blue Suede Shoes as Elvis at Suncoast MCC’s variety show in Venice Sept. 18.

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PhoTo BY KRisTA DiTUCCi

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VS OCTOBER 3RD | 7:30 PM | ORLANDO CITRUS BOWL

321-441-3030 SUNDAY, OCT. 11 BOARDING 4PM-5PM CRUISE 5PM-7PM

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RESERVATIONS STRONGLY SUGGESTED

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www.orlandoderbygirls.com Semoran Skateway • 2670 Cassel Creek Blvd Casselberry , FL Sunday September 27th • 4:40 PM • $8 Pre-Sale • $10 Door

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watermark Your lgbt life.

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overheard

OrlandO Out+abOut

KeeP OrlandO Odd

I

f you HappeneD To Have sTrolleD THrougH THe sTreeTs of downtown Orlando last week you may have seen some really eclectic art, with the Art in Odd Places – downtown Orlando was overrun with visual and performance art which featured the works of local artists like Brendan O’Connor (Street Urchins), Doug Rhodehamel (1001 Paper Bag Mushrooms) and Masami Kochikawa (self-portrait as a Butterfly Woman). According to event producer, Tim Turner, dates have yet to be set, but he assured Watermark there will be a next one for sure. With a few considering factors, they want the festival different part of the year, Winter/Spring versus this year’s Summer/ Spring. Unaware Sunday funday revelers fell into 3 categories, those that got it, those that didn’t and those too blitzed to even notice the giant pipe man riding a bicycle.

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On the fringe Of sOmething new

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iTH 2016 anD THe 25Th anniversary of THe orlanDo inTernaTional fringe fesTival, there will be some new changes coming. The annual festival will now be known as Orlando Fringe and will soon be unveiling a new logo, keep an eye out on WatermarkOnline.com for details. Executive Director George Wallace explains, “We have now become more than just a once a year festival. We’ve got year-round programming, Movies Out Loud, and will be offering trainings and workshops in our new space, so it is important to change the name to reflect we are more than just a singular event. The other exciting part is each one of our programs will be getting an updated look.” Frankly, we don’t think 25 is too young for a facelift.

deeP blue

a

T a sepT. 21 performance of THe laTesT iTeraTion of the VarieTEASE burlesque extravaganza, “Coincidences,” there was something headier in the air than usual, and almost palpable teardrop. “Is it fate or a coincidence?” is the tagline to the show which runs at the Venue in Ivanhoe Village for just a couple more shows (the last is on Monday, Sept.

28). Venue and VarieTEASE proprietor (and creative spectacle) BlueStar and her company of talented, acrobatic stars brought the crowd to tears while interpreting the darker moments of darker songs from acts ranging from Sia to Radiohead. It was an unusually stripped-down ‘TEASE, largely because it was BlueStar’s way of lamenting the loss of her father recently, and because fate and coincidence sometimes overlap. Our love and strength is with Blue as she grieves … just as much as it is when she shares her life and beauty. Drip. Drop.

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oDD-lanDo: Timothy D. Turner, AiOP Orlando Producer; Patrick Greene, AiOP CoCurrator; Frank Billingsley, Chief of Staff for Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer; Jennifer Quigley, board member of festival presenter Downtown Arts District and Orange County’s Arts & Cultural Affairs Advisory Council; Ed Woodham, AiOP Founder/Director; Wanda ortiz, UCF Professor and AiOP Orlando performance artist discuss the importance of public art. Photo CoURTesY AioP

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We goT Jokes: Gidget Galore (left) and Addison Taylor gear up to host Movies Out Loud: To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar at The Abbey Sept. 9. PhoTo BY JAKe sTeVeNs

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BrigHT fuTures: emily Mound (left) and london Nunn (center) are the recipients of $1,500 scholarships at Orlando Youth Alliance’s 20th anniversary reception at Dubsdread Country Club Aug. 14. They students are pictured with Bill Neighbor, who along with Tim Warzecha, donated the scholarships.

PhoTo CoURTesY oYA

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inHale exHale: Every breath we drew photographer Jess T. Dugan and Cornell Fine Arts Museum director ena heller at the Dugan’s book signing and speaking event at CFAM on Sept. 16.

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golDen Wings: Over the course of the 4 day event, Art In Odd Places Orlando 2015, about 3516 golden origami butterflies were used in the creation of Golden Butterfly Woman— Masami Koshikawa and Anna Cruz are the living artwork. Photo by DANNY GARCiA

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WilD nigHT: GLBT Center director terry DeCarlo (right) and his husband Bill huelsman enjoy tapas and cocktails at Zebra Coalition’s “A Walk in Barcelona” event at Rosen Shingle Creek.

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PhoTo BY JAMie hYMAN

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move over, men: Danielle Miller, Marylin McGinnis, Chloe Mcelroy and Courtney Bahr bend gender for Southern Winds Theatre’s contemporary comedy “Women Playing Hamlet” at The Venue.

PhoTo BY BoNNie sPRUNG

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muy Bueno: Zebra Coalition’s brand new executive director, heather Wilkie, and Zebra Board member scott Bowman take a stroll through Spanish-inspired streets for the organization’s “A Walk In Barcelona” fundraising event Sept.

12. PhoTo BY JAMie hYMAN

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PhoTo BY ToM DYeR

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watermark Your lgbt life.

813.229.STAR (7827) • STRAZCENTER.ORG Group Sales (10+ get a discount): 813.222.1016 or 1047 Events, days, dates, times, performers and prices are subject to change without notice.

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Sep t emb er 24 - Oc tOb er 7, 2015 // ISSue 2 2. 20

announcements

wedding bells

Keven renken, 57, and bill myerholtz, 66 from Tampa, Florida

congratUlations BlueStar celebrated three years of operations of the Venue in Orlando’s Ivanhoe District on Sept. 12

years together:

The GaYbor District Coalition celebrates another year of uniting LGBT and LGBT-friendly businesses in Tampa’s historic district on Sept. 29.

33 years

engagement date:

Dino McGill and Nick Lawrence are celebrating the second anniversary of their wedding ceremony on Oct. 3.

January 6, 2015

wedding date:

October 2, 2015

departUres

wedding venUe:

After 15 years of serving the LGBT community of St. Pete, Georgie’s Alibi officially closed their doors Sept. 20.

Their backyard

wedding planner:

Keven and Bill planned their wedding.

wedding caterers: Affordable Catering

wedding theme/colors:

The wedding will be dress casual with the colors being purple, pink and white.

First song:

“The Next Ten Minutes” from the musical The Last Five Years

interesting Fact:

They met because they both had a mutual interest in theater.

local birthdays

PhoTo CoURTesY KeVeN ReNKeN AND Bill MYeRholTZ

“W

e kepT encounTering

each other,” Keven Renken says.

“Not only encountering each other, but finding each other.”

Keven, who is a teacher and the theater department chairman at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School, met Bill Myerholtz, who is a disability representative for Morgan & Morgan, for the first time back in 1982.

Keven was directing a play in Columbus, Ohio, where they both lived at the time, and walked across the hall to where another show was rehearsing. He was talking to his friend who was in the show when he scanned the room and noticed Bill—the only person he didn’t recognize. He asked his friend about him, and she didn’t know very much but she would find out for him.

“She wasn’t sure whether he was gay or not,” Keven jokes. “She didn’t know him well enough, so after every rehearsal she would call me, this was way before there was texting, to give me the ‘Is Bill gay?’ update.”

One day, the cast of that show

had a dress rehearsal, and Keven decided to try to strike up a conversation with Bill. After the rehearsal, his friend introduced them and he barely said a word besides “Hi,” picked up his stuff and left.

Keven went to a party for the cast later that evening. Sure enough, Bill was there, and this time when they spoke they hit it off—and they both say the rest is history.

“He seemed like a very nice guy and very much a people person,” Bill says. “He was very animated and one of those people that just starts conversations with everybody.”

With Bill just getting out of a relationship, he didn’t want to be involved with anyone else too soon. But it seemed over the years, they were always in each other’s life no matter what.

Keven ended up going to New York for graduate school, and Bill would visit him all the time.

Despite the years and distance, they always kept in touch and connected. When Keven finally came back to Ohio, Bill had an opportunity in Tampa, so he took it and moved down to Florida.

Soon enough, Keven came down to visit him, and that’s when Bill finally figured it was time. So he asked Keven if he wanted to move down with him right before he got on his plane to fly back to Ohio—and he said yes, and they have been together ever since.

On January 6, 2015, the day it became legal for same-sex couples to get married in Florida, Keven sent to Bill’s work 12 longstemmed red roses with a note that read “I love you. Will you marry me?” And he said yes.

“I don’t tend to get emotional about things as much as Keven, but it was very shocking and very surprising,” Bill says.

The couple is going to have a short ceremony at sunset in their backyard surrounded by their closest family and friends, and then a night filled with drinking, mingling with family an friends, and celebrating their special day with the people that mean the most to them.

Tampa Bay fashion designer Ivanka Ska, former Broadway Across America Orlando President Ron Legler (Sept. 24); former Watermark Orlando ad sales rep Kevin Thornton (Sept. 25); EO Inn & Urban Spa general manager Eddie Cooper, gay bar star Janine Klein, Keep Orlando Beautiful coordinator Jody Goostree, Watermark Director of Online Media Jamie Hyman (Sept.

26); Watermark freelance photographer Deanna McKinney (Sept. 27); Tampa realtor Cody Limberger, Dardin Restaurants’ Social Media Strategist Jeff Alexander Giordano (Sept.

28); Tampa decorator extraordinaire Matthieu Stanoch, Ybor City event planner Tony LaColla (Sept. 29); Watermark freelancer writer Aaron Alper, HIV/AIDS activist Rob Domenico (Sept.

30); Twirler and Bay News 9 traffic expert Chuck Henson, Orlando city commission candidate Randy Ross (Oct. 4); Lighthouse Realty broker/owner Mike Trexler (Oct. 6); Florida House candidate Mike Reedy, Gomez Law Firm of St. Petersburg’s Ian Stanislaus, Orlando LGBT activist Michael Slaymaker, graphic designer Jocelynn White (Oct. 7).

do yoU have an annoUncement? having a birthday or anniversary? did yoU get a new Job or promotion? see your news in Watermark! send your announcement to editor@Watermarkonline.com or go to Watermarkonline.com/submit-a-Transition.

it’s that easy!

—Samantha Rosenthal

Do you have an interesting wedding or engagement story you’d like to share with Watermark readers? if so, email the details to editor@Watermarkonline.com for consideration as a future feature on this page.

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B A Y

accOuntant

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Central Florida pro sports teams celebrate LGBT Pride Samantha Rosenthal

O

rlando | October is LGBT History Month, so Orlando City Soccer Club and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are gearing up to celebrate pride with their LGBT fans.

Orlando City Soccer announced that it will be hosting its first LGBT Night on October 3 at the Orlando Citrus Bowl against the Montreal Impact, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be hosting a LGBT Pride Day for their October 4 game against the Carolina Panthers.

The Orlando City home game will fall at the beginning of the week when Come Out With Pride is celebrated.

“We are thrilled to offer a special LGBT-themed evening at our match on October 3rd,”said Orlando City founder and

President Phil Rawlins in a press release. “We look forward to Pride Week every year and our organization has been a staunch supporter of this important event for the last few years.”

The Orlando City Soccer’s LGBT Night announcement comes just over a week after Equality Florida’s Gina Duncan posted a teaser photo on Facebook that showed a rainbow-colored Orlando City Soccer Club logo.

Orlando City also announced on they teamed up with Adidas to release a limited-edition rainbow merchandise line at the match.

Decals, scarves, T-shirts, tank tops and other merchandise featuring a rainbow Orlando City logo will be for sale. They will also have a merchandise booth at Come Out With Pride October 10. Orlando City is one of the sponsors of the event, and Orlando City players will also participate in this year’s parade.

MBA Secretary Michael Deeying is excited for Orlando City’s LGBT Night and how it will allow his LGBT friends and allies to unite and celebrate Pride.

“I think it’s really great to see a major league sports team in the United States support LGBT rights in general,” Deeying said.

“A lot of teams don’t address the issue, but I really admire that Orlando City is taking the stance to show their support as an ally for the community.”

Last year, the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined forces with Tampa Pride to host the first LGBT Pride pre-game tailgate. This year, the NFL franchise is once again hosting its Tampa Bay Bucs GLBT Pride Day on October 4 at the Raymond James Stadium for the Bucs home game against the Carolina Panthers.

“Our franchise has a history of supporting the principle that that everyone should be able

to take pride and feel invested in their team,”Tampa Bay Buccaneers’Chief Operating Officer Brian Ford said in an email to Watermark.

The night was announced September 8 when Tampa Pride released an infographic with a list of their 2016 Tampa Pride events.

There were 19 events announced that will happen from September up until Tampa Pride in March, and the Bucs’ Pride Day was one of them.

“We are extremely excited to have a strong organizational presence at the LGBT event and look forward to building on last year’s success,”Ford said. “It will be yet another great opportunity for our fans from the entire Tampa Bay area, including the surrounding communities in Orlando and Sarasota to come together for some pre-game socializing and networking before what we know will be

an exciting game against the Carolina Panthers.”

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers game kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. For more information on tickets to the Bucs Pride Day, contact Allie Lewis at 813870-2700 ext. 2507. For every ticket purchased specifically for the Pride Day event, $5 will be donated to either Tampa Pride, St. Pete Pride, Metro Wellness and Community Centers, Orlando Pride, You Can Play or Equality Florida.

Kickoff for Orlando City Soccer’s LGBT Night game on October 3 against the Montreal Impact is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Discount tickets for the LGBT Pride Night event are available at OrlandoCitySC.com/PrideNite; enter the code “PRIDE” to view discount tickets and seating locations. For more information, contact Daniel Quesada at 407-480-4771.

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uPrisings

the debate club

o

classless chaps:

Presidential candidate Mike huckabee on Pope Francis visiting the U.S.A. last week: “President Obama’s classless decision to transform Pope Francis’ visit to the White House into a politicized cattle call for gay and pro-abortion activists is an insult to millions of Catholics. Why is it that Obama goes to extremes to accommodate Muslim terrorists but shows nothing but disdain for Christians? This is a new low for an administration that will go down as the most anti-Christian in American history.”

carly’s lyin’

M

ayBe iT’s Because We’re a naTion of Trees that sway in political breezes of our own personal discontent, but the news that Hewlet- Packard failure and odd woman out (of the Republican presidential primary) former CEO Carly Fiorina and her trumping of bizarre wizard of breezy darkness Donald Trump at the most recent Republican debate has won her a legitimate chance in the stakes. The once-underdog scored points on calling out Trump’s commentary on women keeping up appearances of the physical variety, an act that shot her up to number two (with a bullet!) for those watching this train wreck. Trouble is, Fiorina also claimed to have seen gruesome videos about harvesting fetal brains, because Planned Parenthood. Even FOX News called her on her lie (the videos don’t exist). She, however, isn’t relenting. But she’s coming to Hernando County on Oct. 21! Maybe you can call her a liar to her face?

62

T

filibusted?

Here’s alWays a sTrange, suspicious anD sTeely aFTerTaSTe when you hear of conservative leadership taking the high road—call it Stockholm Syndrome, or the McCain effect from that one time that Sen. John McCain tried to deflect some Muslim xenophobia at a public appearance—but hearing that U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Bradenton, is fighting the filibuster as a legal construct, which a serious weight problem that is holding this country hostage, well, it’s encouraging. We’re not exactly hopping in Buchanan’s lap, mind, as he’s currently crocheting headlines together about the Senate’s refusal to debate the Iran deal that will save our lives. But, given his oped in the Bradenton Herald on Sept.

18, in which he calls the filibuster “a relic of the past,” we’ll pass the salt at Thanksgiving and smile with all due sincerity. He’s not even scared of Democrats passing bills! He’s a rough boy.

cOrcOran will see yOu in the lObby

h

ouse speaker-DesignaTe ricHarD corcoran, R-Land o’ Lakes, isn’t wasting any time speaking out both sides of his selfrighteous mouth, it appears. On Sept.

21, Politico.com reported that the crowned prince of doublespeak—our name for whatever House Speaker you throw at us, unless it is a shirtless former Speaker Will Weatherford (different name, entirely)—was telling dubious lies. Gasp. Corcoran has deigned himself master of transparency, allegedly, giving speeches in which he declares things like that the House should “build an absolute firewall between our private lives and the influence of special interests” in public. Meanwhile, whilst shining his Tallahassee boots for the big dance of ethical public service, he just held a hootenanny for some 400 lobbyists and supporters. It’s so much more fun and dirty when the microphone is off.

watermark Your lgbt life.

Billy Manes

nce upon a Time, iT felT like a puBlic DuTy To WiTness the beads of sweat lining Richard Nixon’s lips while the glowing complexion of John F. Kennedy burned visible anxiety into said grumble face made for print media and the quotes that come with it. Once upon a time, there was the underlying sense that gentlemen (now women, too!) standing atop a stage in front of tens of millions of people to discuss the fate of our still-young nation was a piece of this, our great democracy, a piece not to be missed. And then 2015 happened: The debates had to be split into kids’ table and grown-ups’ table by dint of polling percentages, and all of American life turned into a reality show based around a pageant based around hate and ignorance based around what the hell life has turned into.

But it’s the overall disingenuousness of it all, that little twinge that rides behind everyone’s ears and drifts to their mouths, muttering, “They’re all liars. All politicians are crooks.” That’s not terribly healthy, nor does it inform voters in any manner.

The bluster and braggadocio have already cost us such Koch-Brothers-friendly malcontents as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, because, presumably, they can’t make any sense of the words that pile up betwixt their ears, nor can they defend themselves from the marauding hairpiece of sewn from bankruptcies named Donald Trump. But they’re also making people who believe in doing the right thing turn the channel quickly. This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio spat back in this manner when Trump called him on his absenteeism on the Senate floor, although if you try to peer through the rhetoric, it’s almost like you can see air. On a clear day, you can see forever.

“You’re right, I have missed some votes, and I’ll tell you why, Mr. Trump. Because in my years in the Senate, I’ve figured out very quickly that the political establishment in Washington, D.C. in both political parties is completely out of touch with the lives of our people,” Rubio said. “That’s why I’m missing votes. Because I am leaving the Senate, I’m not running for re-election, and I’m running for president because I know this: unless we have the right president, we cannot make America fulfill its potential, but with the right person in office, the 21st century can be the greatest era that our nation has ever known.”

Woah. Heavy.

With this clown bus, that conclusion can likely be disregarded with every other lipstickstained napkin you’ve ever received at a bar, or every budget number you’ve read on a bathroom wall. There is no denying that these are serious times. There is also no denying that these are not dependable people. Fortunately, when you “feel the Bern” or “stand with Hillary,” there isn’t quite so much shit that you have to wipe off your lips. Or sweat, really. Sorry, Dick.

Sep t emb er 24 - Oc tOb er 7, 2015 // ISSue 2 2. 20

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