Watermark Issue 23.09: Orlando Fringe

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iSSUe 23.09 • May 5 - May 18, 2016 WaTerMarKOnline.COM

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Orlando 407.434.8800

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departments 6 // mail 7 // editor’s desk 8 // orlando news 12 // tampa bay news 16 // state news 17 // nation & world news 27 // in-deptH 43 // arts & entertainment 51 // community calendar 53 // tampa bay out+about 55 // orlando out+about 56 // tampa bay marketplace 57 // transitions/wedding bells 58 // orlando marketplace 62 // uprisings

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The large data revision combined with these vague and imprecise explanations has created uncertainty regarding the true status of new HIV infections in Florida, as well as questions regarding the FDoH’s competency and transparency.

—floriDa congressional Delegation in a letter to gov. rick scott

on tHe cover

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PAGE FrInGE sHOW

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QUartErbaCKs:

Addison Taylor looks back at Orlando Fringe with the leaders of the festival in tow.

Photo illustration by Jake Stevens

scan qr code For

watermarkonline.com

milk stock:

The annual Harvey Milk Festival in Sarasota looks to enact cries of freedom and equality with art and music.

watermark i ssue 23 .09 //may 5 - may 18, 2016

scHool ties

Future possibilities

sHe’s grrrrrreat!

uprisings

PAGE Brevard County takes two steps forward as Marion County takes two steps back.

PAGE William Harper says goodbye to ASAP and hello to some much needed time off.

PAGE

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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The Hunger Games’ Tigris, Eugenie Bondurant, talks acting and teaching.

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With the path to the nomination seeming unlikely, will superdelegates feel the Bern?

win tiCkets tO rupaul’s drag raCe: Battle OF the seasOns live at watermarkOnline.COm! watermark Your LGBT life.

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top web comments “The legal fees should be paid directly

by Bondi and Scott as well as punitive damages for their idiocy.”

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watermark Your LGBT life.

—John Dykhouse

WatermarkOnline.com Watermark’s On North Carolina Facebook lawmakers not discussing the anti-LGBT bill they made happen:

“Underneath, these GOP legislators know they messed up, and their decision will cost North Carolina a lot of money.”

—GayEGO

On the Liberty Counsel President Tweeting that she’ll bring a gun into a public bathroom as her “bodyguard”:

“My argument against the new law in N.C. is that NOW men can go into women’s bathrooms and harm them and claim to have a vagina.

Her stated fear was actually ignited by this ignorant law.

There has already been one incident of a straight male assaulting a woman in a bathroom but I have not seen ONE incident where someone was harmed by a transgendered person.”

—bippi

On UCF Fraternity leaders sending “No Homo Bro” email:

“Not only is it homophobic, but it screams for the grammar police.”

—Matt LaVictorie

On Watermark’s Poor White Rich Lady column “Wake up, America: Get out of my kitchen”:

“I love Poor Rich White Lady. More craziness!”

—Kevmicsully

On anti-gay Republican Dennis Hastert being sentenced for molesting boys:

“I hope he gets beaten to death.”

—Chris Murphy

On an architects’ convention canceling in North Carolina over anti-gay law:

“I wonder if disinvestment by ‘progressive’ corporations (assuming that’s a thing) will be offset by investment from ‘conservative’ corporations. If so, this would likely undermine the well-being of N.C. LGBT people who will be forced to work in the closet or completely alienated from the labor market due to discrimination.”

—Garrett L. Grainger

On Michelle Obama’s comments that the march for civil rights is about all Americans:

“Michelle Obama as Hillary’s VP. Game over!”

—Gerald James

“Obama 2024!”

—Wayne Vanier

On the Liberty Counsel President Tweeting that she’ll bring a gun into a public bathroom as her “bodyguard”:

“Wait, which side overreacted? The one who says

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

she needs protection or the one who said having a (presumably legal concealed-carry) is an ‘act of violence?’”

—Maria Kay Helm

“Stupid is as stupid does.”

—Eve Lake

On the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence being at the Greenwood Cemetery’s moonlight history tour:

“Wow, we just played the Queer Habits documentary about them at the Florida Film Festival last week.”

—Tim Anderson

On UCF Fraternity leaders sending “No Homo Bro” email:

“In most of the movies I watch that center around fraternities they say ‘no homo’ right before they have sex with each other.”

—Jeff Jones

On Florida’s fight against marriage equality costing taxpayers plenty:

“The legal fees should be paid directly by Bondi and Scott as well as punitive damages for their idiocy.”

—John Dykhouse

“Thanks Bondi!”

—Joaner Hepsworth

editor’s

Billy Manes EDITOR

BIlly@WatermarkOnline.com

I

Desk

t was a sweaty, stinky mess

lingering beneath swaying light bulbs and an odd sense (scent?) of danger – bathrooms not necessarily included. At least that was the hurryup-and-wait felling that I got upon my arrival via tarnished spaceship in Orlando in 1997, plopped down in the middle of theater festival without a theater or air conditioning.

The Orlando Fringe never existed on pretense, though, so postscript stands second only to the euphoria of the moment, right next to that strange guy looking at you like you’re a strange guy, then laughing and the barriers being broken on stage. Orlando and Fringe were a match made in heaven. In the late ‘90s, the Fringe stood in stark contrast to the Lou Pearlman boy-band brigade seeking to whiten the city’s teeth.

It was Haight-Ashbury more than

hating ass-berries, and as such, it was the de facto cultural clutch the city needed.

Make no mistake, the Orlando Fringe is this town’s matted underdog made good. For every quizzical glance into maladroit disorders and kinky extroversion, there have always been bright eyes staring toward trails of glitter lighting up the path to the colors of its venues, the talent of its participants, the magic of theater on a shoestring. It’s a messy affair,

but most good things are. It’s also the place where performance comes from: within not without.

And as such, Orlando’s Fringe festival, the longest winding road in this country (if you don’t count actual roads but only the histrionic ones), it’s earned its place in Central Florida’s kaleidoscopic pantheon.

This week, we don our best fake silver flake to celebrate a quarter century of theatrical excess under financial duress, pancake under hot lamps. Under the current stewardship of executive director George Wallace and producer Michael Marinaccio, the project – the atmosphere – continues to grow into itself in the most astounding, obnoxious and inviting ways. Fringe loves Orlando. Orlando loves Fringe.

One of the most inspiring parts of putting this issue together was seeing it through its historical lens; we spoke with several of the principals that got this little red wagon motorized, and none among them had a bad word to say. Yes, it’s work. Yes, it’s hell. Yes, there is always somebody unwrapping a piece of hard candy while pissing themselves next to a screaming baby just five minutes after show time. But far above the cacophony of people being people in crammed spaces has always been the joy of sharing – specifically sharing art from the fringes of society, art you may not otherwise see.

And though Fringe may have grown into a somewhat different beast over its quarter century – we now have Kid’s Fringe, beer tents, air conditioning, all of Loch Haven Park (quick, somebody say “Shakespeare!”), food trucks, buttons, controversy and lore – it’s still beating at the same heart rate, still carrying theater into uncomfortable and hilarious altitudes. We’re still all Fringe geeks. Some of us may be older now, but it doesn’t really matter.

Once the lights go down, we’re all miscreants with a dramatic edge

bordering on lunacy. We’re all living on the Fringe.

Clearly, that’s not all that your friends at Watermark are doing this issue; there aren’t enough dark rooms to house our emotions.

Inside, you’ll find stories about two different Harvey Milk celebrations – one in Sarasota, the other in Orlando – just in advance of Milk’s birthday on May 22 (shared, for the record, by this editor). You’ll also find some disturbing news about the growing scourge of so-called bathroom bills and how they relate to Florida and the rest of the country. Clue: It’s not always good, though sometimes logic prevails.

We speak with Eugenie

It’s a messy affair, but most good things are. It’s also the place where performance comes from: within not without.

Bondurant about her Hunger Games experience that plucked her from striped dresses on the runway to actual body-painted stripes for her role as Tigris.

(You have two minutes to make a Euphrates joke; I couldn’t). We talk to William Harper of ASAP about his impending exit from the philanthropic organization, muddle through the national politics of the now regarding the infighting in the Democratic primary parade, applaud the congressional delegation that has our backs on discrimination and check in with Real Radio 104.1’s Sabrina Ambra for some discussion of how mosquito bites turn into breasts. Life lessons, then. We all need those!

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contributors Krista DiTucci

is a freelance writer and family advocate for Manatee Children’s Services. She lives in Sarasota with her husband and children. Page 12

Sabrina Ambra

is a cohost of Real Radio 104.1’s “News Junkie” program and will kick your ass if she needs to. Page 19

Samantha Rosenthal

attended University of Central Florida and is a former Watermark editorial assistant. She is currently a freelance writer and regularly covers Wedding Bells. Page 57

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

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central florida news

Transgender 8-yearold is special guest for 2016 Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast

Let Them Pee:

Protestors gather outside the Marion County School Board meeting where the Board ultimately voted to require students and staff to use restrooms that match their genders at birth, regardless of how they identify.

Jamie Hyman

O

rlando | The 4th Annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast will feature a special guest this year: Ryland Whittington, an 8-year-old transgender boy who gained notoriety after his family published a video telling his unique and inspiring story, two years ago.

“This remarkable young man is absolutely the epitome of courage and authenticity,” says Miriam Richter, Education Director and Counsel for the Harvey Milk Foundation.

Whittington, who lives in San Diego, will receive the annual Milk Foundation Rosza Award May 13 during the Foundation’s South Florida event at The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Then Whittington and his family will travel to Orlando for the Diversity Breakfast May 16 at Dubsdread Country Club in College Park.

“Anyone who believes that every person on this earth should be able to live their life with authenticity and proudly should be interested in coming to this breakfast,” Richter says. “Ryland Whittington is the absolute rock star of showing that.”

The event will honor LGBT activist and Orlando attorney Mary Meeks, who has been instrumental in many LGBT advancements both locally and nationally, and Scott Maxwell, an Orlando Sentinel columnist who has used his voice to further LGBT equality in Central Florida. Organizers will present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer for helping establish Orlando as an LGBT-friendly city.

Additionally, Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, will deliver his State of Global Equality address.

The Diversity Breakfast is a benefit for The GLBT Center of Central Florida and The Harvey Milk Foundation.

“The foundation is unique in that we approach acceptance and authenticity and bringing this to any marginalized community worldwide. That was one of Harvey’s original missions when he was in office in San Francisco, he always reached out to all communities,” Richter says. “When all communities realize we should be celebrating our differences and accepting each other and celebrating authenticity, all of our lives are improved, humanity is improved and the world is a better place.”

The Breakfast begins at 8 a.m. Tickets are $45 for individuals, $500 for a reserved table of 10 and available at HarveyMilkBreakfast.EventBrite.com.

Visit WatermarkOnline.com to see the video that tells Ryland Whittington’s story.

8

Photo courtesy Equality Florida.

A Step Backward Marion County school board votes anti-transgender rules Jamie Hyman

O

cala | In a 4-1 vote, the Marion County School Board approved a resolution that requires students and staff to use the restroom that matches their biological sex, regardless of gender identity.

The April 26 meeting was held before a packed room, with overflow attendees watching via a television screen outside. According to Gina Duncan, Equality Florida’s Transgender Inclusion Director, 47 people spoke on the proposal, and most were against it.

“By passing this hateful policy, you will be forever known as the North Carolina of school boards!” Duncan told the board during her testimony.

Even so, Board Chair Bobby James was the only “no” vote on the resolution, which states that “sex is defined as a person’s biological sex, either female or male, as determined at birth” and “there is a longstanding history in this nation and Florida public schools of restricting access to single-sex restrooms, locker rooms and other single-sex facilities on the basis of biological sex.”

That means school board members Nancy Stacy, Carol Ely, Angie Boynton and Board Vice Chair

watermark Your LGBT life.

Kelly King all voted in favor.

“We are very disappointed that the Marion County school board has decided to move forward with this blatantly unlawful gender inspection policy that subjects transgender students to excessive bullying, violence, and humiliation in our public schools,” says EQFL government affairs manager Carlos Guillermo Smith.

“They have clearly violated Title IX protections which require transgender students be treated according to their gender identity.”

Smith adds that the ensuing battle could be very expensive.

“The school board’s actions set the district and the taxpayers on an unnecessary and expensive collision course with federal law and all recent court rulings which have upheld these protections based on gender identity.

This battle is far from over,” he says.

LGBT activist and Orlando attorney Mary Meeks agrees with Guillermo Smith’s assessment of what this could cost the District, and attempted to warn board members in an email before the meeting. Her email lists federal law as it applies to the issue, including Title IX, which, again, prohibits discrimination against transgender students.

“The law is clear and it is irrefutable that the Board’s proposal is unlawful.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

The fact that this proposal is nevertheless being advanced, based on frivolous and dangerous arguments that have been proven many times to lack any factual or legal basis whatsoever, betrays an underlying political agenda that does not serve the interests of Marion County residents nor its students,” Meeks’ email reads.

She also advised the Board not to take the advice of Liberty Counsel, an anti-gay hate group that has been pushing these types of restrictions around the country.

Duncan says the emergency school board meeting was “hasty and discriminatory,” held in response to a lawsuit threat by Liberty Counsel and a single complaint from the parent of a student. She says the April 26 vote is especially disheartening because other school boards around Florida are working to be more supportive of transgender students.

“Over half of Florida’s School Boards recently attended the ‘All Together Now Conference,’ sponsored

by Broward County Schools, to learn effective ways to implement LGBTQ-inclusive classroom policies and provide guidance to faculty and administrators,” Duncan says, adding that transgender students “already face an alarming amount of harassment and bullying” in schools and the new bathroom policy is “harmful and debilitating” to transgender youth.

“The suicide rate of young transgender people is already alarmingly high, and this resolution will only result in an increased marginalization of gender nonconforming students, placing them in harm’s way,” she says.

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9

central florida news

in otHer news

lgbt protections plan For brevard county scHools trucks along

ucf greek leaDers in hot water over “no homo” email

Jamie Hyman

University of Central Florida’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life got some heat for sending an email headed “No Homo Bro!” The email was to advertise a meeting with the goal of promoting diversity in fraternities and to talk about masculinity. UCF spokesman Chad Binette says the event was organized by UCF’s Social Justice and Advocacy office in partnership with the Greek group and “The decision to use that title was stupid, and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

local PlanneD ParenthooD film to screen at hollywooD lgbt film fest When the Party Ends, a film by Source Productions of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, has been accepted at OUT Web Fest, a digital media festival to celebrate short-form content created by and for LGBTs. The film portrays the need for comprehensive sexual health education, connecting it to the health and well-being of all communities. OUT Web Fest is May 7 will feature screenings and panels with industry experts at the American Film institute.

v

iera | As recently as March 2016, it looked like a movement to add LGBT protections to Brevard School District’s existing non-discrimination policy was dead in the water. After a group of anti-gay speakers flooded a meeting and the Board moved the proposal to workshop, it appeared the protections hit a wall.

Just one month later, Scott Wall-DeSousa, a key advocate for the protections whose husband teaches in the district, says he’s “very optimistic” that the District’s policies will be updated to protect LGBT students and staff.

“Right now, it is legal for [my husband] Dan to lose his job over being gay,” he says.

At the April 26 workshop, WallDeSousa says the Board brought in a “highly educated panel,” including the District litigation attorney who pointed out that by not updating their policies, the District does

safer stuDents: The Brevard County School Board is moving toward adding LGBT protections for students and staff to their nondiscrimination policies.

PHOTO COuRTESy BREVARD COunTy SCHOOlS WEBSITE

not follow what is considered best practices and therefore, might find themselves out in the cold should there be litigation.

Wall-DeSousa says the workshop “cleared the air” and seemed to silence the opposition to adding the LGBT protections.

“It wasn’t a win or lose situation,” he says. “It was how to do the right

thing for everybody. The way the school board works is you have to create policy, and that policy creates procedures. This isn’t a short term; everything’s going to be dandy in a couple of days [situation].”

The next step is a May 10 meeting, where the board will schedule a public hearing and a third meeting for a final vote.

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11

tampa bay news

metro wellness expanding st. pete building aFter location purcHase Jeremy Williams

m

etro Wellness finalized the purchase of their St. Petersburg clinic and community center and now need the community’s help to make it the Tampa Bay hub for LGBT healthcare.

Metro Chief Executive Officer Lorraine Langlois spoke at an event held at the St. Pete clinic April 28 where she opened up about the legal battle Metro faced which led them to purchase the building.

“We have had a rough go-around for the last eight months,” Langlois told the crowd. “We have been in a legal battle for this building. The owner had sold it under us and then wanted us out in three days.”

Metro came out on top and closed on the building April 15.

“We started in our small room at King of Peace... who created us 26 years ago,” Langlois said.“We grew up and moved across the street and within 3 years we really needed to find new space. We are in that boat again.”

Metro purchased the building for nearly $3 million and will be putting another $3 million toward renovations and expansions.

“We collaborated with Community AIDS Network (CAN) down in Sarasota,” Langlois said.“We have the same synergy, so both entities created Metro CAN, LLC. and that is the company that bought the building. That ensured our future and their future in Tampa Bay.” With such a quick turnaround from nearly having to vacate to being new building owners, Metro and CAN needed a large amount of money quickly.

“Lucky for us we had to turn banks away,” Langlois said.

“We listened to six proposals and went with the best offer.

In total we got a loan of about $5.2 million and we need to come up with the rest.”

Top priority renovations are a new roof, new windows and the addition of twelve air conditioning units. Another priority is doubling the clinic’s exam rooms, from eight to 16.

“With HIV and primary care, we are getting a hundred calls a week from potential new patients,” Langlois said.

“For those who know me I am not someone who likes to wait and I am working on my patience, but we intend to change this building really quickly.”

Along with upgrading the existing space, Metro is looking into additional space for counseling, group therapy and LGBT youth spaces and an auditorium with stage for community events. Langolis hopes that Metro can be the crown jewel in a thriving LGBT area.

“We have gotten together with the other developers in this area and talked about what this area could look like and be,” Langlois said. “It’s going to be amazing.”

The purchase will allow Metro to use the building’s entire 47,000 square feet. Right now, they only use 18,000.

The remaining space is being considered for profitmaking areas for Metro, such as affordable office space rentals to non-profits and other LGBT businesses.

12

venti annI:

William Harper says good-bye to ASAP after two decades with the organization.

PHOTO By STEVE BlAnCHARD

Changing asap Executive director William Harper steps down after 20 years with AIDS Service Association of Pinellas Jeremy Williams

s

t. Petersburg | William Harper of AIDS Service Association of Pinellas (ASAP) will be stepping down as executive director as he approaches 20 years with the organization.

Harper, who started with ASAP in May 1996, says that it has been a great opportunity for him to work for such an amazing organization, but that after two decades, it is time to move on.

“I’m a firm believer that if your heart or gut tells you ‘I’m tired, I’m rundown and you need to take care of yourself,’ that you need to listen to that. I just feel like I have come to that point,” Harper says.

Harper came to Florida after working several years as a music director for a church in Georgia.

“I had been outed by church officials in Georgia and was asked very politely to resign and move on,” Harper says. “It was an evangelical church and they said they didn’t appreciate my lifestyle.”

watermark Your LGBT life.

The move took him to Lakeland where his family lived, and he took a job at King of Peace MCC in St. Petersburg, commuting each day from home to the church.

While working at the church, Harper took a part-time job as a case manager for ASAP working 20 hours a week. He made the move over to St. Pete and made his way through the ranks.

Harper came on board with ASAP during a time when HIV/ AIDS was still front page news across the world. It was a time when Broadway’s Rent was front and center on America’s stage and the discovery of antiretroviral medications started giving people living with the disease a light at the end of the tunnel.

“I loved being able to see people get started on those meds and able to do a 180 and start getting better,” Harper says. “It really empowered the community and it gave people hope, especially the LGBT community.

It gave them a real boost in the arm, because we felt like, wow, we really beat this thing.”

With drugs coming on the market

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

that were making HIV a more manageable disease, new concerns started to arise. The caseloads for people needing assistance and to be placed on meds started going up and donations to AIDS services started dropping.

“We loved the fact that we were keeping folks instead of losing folks,” Harper says. “But it did create some challenges in how do we create the funding, how we’d create the resources, even the staffing, to meet the needs.”

Harper says when the funding started to go down, the community stepped up its efforts.

Through the years, Harper and ASAP have been able to add more services to help the community, including adding in mental and substance abuse counseling, a care clinic and the medical home, but what Harper is most proud to have been a part of is the in-house pharmacy that was established as part of the Home 3050 program.

“ASAP, even with the successful fundraisers Dine Out for Life and the Tampa Bay AIDS Walk, relies on grants for most of the funding that keeps it going,” Harper says. “With grants you never know when it comes back up a year from now, or a few years from now, [or] if you’re going to get it again, because we have to compete for them, and that’s just the way the system is.”

The pharmacy piece however adds a new stream of revenue back into

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tampa bay news | uu | William Harper from pg.12

the program and leaves sustainability for the organization that wasn’t there before.

“So if we do lose a grant or funding down the road, we aren’t just left out to dry. We will have the pharmacy revenue to help us retain those services,” Harper says.

20 years is a long time to be with the same organization, especially one so instrumental in fighting a disease that at one point was viewed as a death sentence, and that is something Harper is very proud to have been a part of.

“I have done a wonderful job since coming here to ASAP. I don’t mind saying it for myself, I have done a good job, but it has been because of my team who has helped me move this far,” Harper says. “Everybody asks, ‘what are you doing next?’

What I’m going to do is rest and relax and take a vacation. I know that sounds selfish, especially from a social worker, but we always tell our patients take care of you, but we don’t do it ourselves. So I’m gonna try and take care of myself.”

Equality Florida takes a turn on the catwalk with the 2016 Greater St. Petersburg Gala Jeremy WIlliams

E

quality Florida looks to go full fashionista as it returns to the Mahaffey Theater for the 2016 Greater St. Petersburg Gala May 7.

Famed designer Michael Vollbracht will be onboard crafting fashion and floral elements for the gala to bring the evening’s theme “Magic, Fantasy and Dreams” to life.

Vollbracht rose to fame working as the head designer for Bill Blass Limited and designing several years for Bloomingdale’s.

“Michael Vollbracht is such a great designer and has done so much to fight for and support the LGBT community,” says Equality Florida’s Development Officer Todd Richardson.

Vollbracht will have an array of models wearing popular, celebrity dresses throughout the event.

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“They will be introduced and will make their way down the staircase and throughout the crowd as visual “goodwill ambassadors” during the evening,” Richardson says. “These are the actual dresses too, not replicas.”

Some of the designs being modeled will include Elizabeth Taylor’s famous “cat coat,” a dress worn by Oprah and a design known as the Rainbow Dress which has been worn by celebrities Eva Longoria and Beyoncé.

The evening’s event will also see two community members receiving Equality Florida’s Voice of Equality Award.

The 2016 recipients are the president of the Tampa Bay Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Ashley Brundage and Metro Wellness and Community Centers former director of LGBT services Chris Rudisill.

“Chris and Ashley are what I

like to call connecters,” Richardson says. “They connect people within the community and outside of the community as well.”

Rudisill, who is now the national executive director of Stonewall National Museum & Archive in Fort Lauderdale, will be making the trip back to St. Petersburg to accept the award.

“When Chris joined Metro in St. Petersburg, he asked me if all the different groups and organizations ever got together and talked and discussed issues, and I said, ‘no, not really.’ So he encouraged us all to meet up and have lunches and come together to organize,” Richardson says.

Brundage, fresh off her recent promotion at PNC Bank, will also be in attendance to accept the award.

“Ashley has done more for raising transgender visibility in the area more than almost anyone I know,” Richardson says. “She is so

smart and with her work at PNC Bank, has just done tremendous things for the community.”

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman will be the recipient of Equality Florida’s Straight Ally for Equality Award. Kriseman has been a vocal supporter for LGBT equality since beginning his political career and was awarded two WAVE Awards by Watermark readers.

“Can I just say the Mayor Kriseman is legitimately one of the coolest politicians I have ever met?”

Richardson says. “He cares so much about doing the right thing and being there to stand up for what is right. He was one of the first to be with the community and march in the parade.”

Armed with just his Twitter account, Mayor Kriseman has taken on those who oppose LGBT equality, from Donald Trump to the state of North Carolina.

The evening will conclude with a “State of the Sate” address by Equality Florida CEO Nadine Smith.

Tickets for the event, which is presented by PNC Bank, can be purchased at EQFL.org/ GreaterStPeteGala.

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state news

Florida reps want answers on doctored Hiv stats Staff report

s

ome of Florida’s U.S. Representatives want Governor Rick Scott to shine some light on why and how the state Health Department adjusted statistics relating to new HIV cases.

On March 26, the Tampa Bay Times published a story noting that the Health Department quietly lowered the numbers of new HIV cases logged in 2014, from 6,147 to 4,613. The original numbers put Florida at the top of the U.S. when it comes to new HIV cases and as a result, the state surgeon general was sharply criticized for cutting staff and spending as HIV cases skyrocketed.

Now, eleven of Florida’s seven U.S. Representatives want answers, and have sent a letter to Gov. Scott demanding he explain.

“The large data revision combined with these vague and imprecise explanations has created uncertainty regarding the true status of new HIV infections in Florida, as well as questions regarding the FDOH’s competency and transparency,” the letter reads.

dcF receives Just one letter against protections For lgbt Foster cHildren Jamie Hyman

t

allahassee | The people have spoken, and they want LGBT foster children to be safe when they’re staying in group homes.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, more than 700 people have submitted written comments to Florida’s Department of Children and Families, asking it to add LGBT protections back into its group home rules. The lone dissenting letter is from Michael and Marysol McDonald of Naples, who claim they are interested in becoming foster parents once their children are older, but “would find it very disconcerting to have to worry about possibly being accused of bullying a foster child simply by practicing our faith!!”

The flood of feedback is in response to the state’s decision to backtrack on those protections. The LGBT Child Welfare Work Group asked DCF to add LGBT protections to the rules governing group homes in the summer of 2015 and the state was on track to do so until January of 2016, when two religious organizations that run group homes – Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops and Florida Baptist Children’s Home – testified at a public hearing on the updates and presented letters arguing against the protections for LGBT foster children. In April, DCF held a public hearing on the issue and the comments were 100 percent in favor of the protections.

“It’s not surprising that the child welfare community has unanimously said this is the right thing to do for kids,” says

Robert Latham, LGBT Child Welfare Work Group chair and supervising attorney for the Children & Youth Law Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law. “We’re hoping the Department will take all this into account and make the changes needed to protect kids.”

If DCF is unwilling to officially change policy, Latham says there are other avenues, such as trainings, contract negotiations, informal policies or recommended procedures they could explore.

“Any of those would be a start in helping to protect this population,” he says.

In the meantime, Latham says he and his fellow advocates are stilling waiting to hear from the state on what they plan to do.

He says DCF did reach out to say that Gov. Scott did not intervene on the protections for LGBT foster children. The state did not clarify why the language was crossed out.

“We’re really hoping for an answer soon,” Latham says.

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nation+world news

Anti-gay Republican Dennis Hastert sentenced for molesting boys Wire Report

W

hen he sentenced Dennis Hastert to more than a year in prison, the judge in the former U.S. House speaker’s hush-money case delivered the verbal equivalent of a public flogging.

Before imposing the 15-month sentence, a far stiffer sentence than federal guidelines suggested, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin spent nearly an hour April 23 rebuking the 74-year-old Republican for sexually abusing high school athletes decades ago, when he was a wrestling coach.

Hastert, the nation’s longestserving GOP speaker who for eight years was second in the line of succession to the presidency, sat almost frozen in a wheelchair, his head slightly bowed as he peered over his eyeglasses.

The judge drew special attention to the lies Hastert told federal investigators last year in a desperate bid to keep his dark secret hidden.

And he portrayed Hastert’s fall from grace as traumatic, not only for his victims and their families, but for the country.

“Nothing is more stunning than to

have the words ‘serial child molester’ and ‘speaker of the House’ in the same sentence.”

As he adjourned the two-hour hearing, Durkin added: “I hope I never see a case like this again.”

Had it not been for the statute of limitations on sex crimes running out long ago, the judge said, Hastert could well have been convicted of sexually abusing children. In that circumstance, he would probably have gone to prison for decades.

The judge did not say where Hastert would serve time when he reports later this year, but he cited one possibility — a prison in the Rochester, Minn., area, that already has many child molesters. In such a place, the judge said, Hastert would be less likely to be singled out by other inmates.

Defense attorney Thomas Green sought probation, saying Hastert had already paid an enormous toll in public shame. Defense attorneys had previously noted how Hastert’s portrait had been taken down from a Capitol Hill hallway shortly after his May 2015 indictment.

“Losing your good name is a punishment,” Durkin said. And Hastert’s name has been “obliterated.”

But taking down a portrait from a place of honor is not comparable to the devastation endured by someone who is sexually abused as a child.

The defense also cited Hastert’s health, saying a blood infection nearly killed him in November and that a stroke has limited his mobility.

The judge, visibly angry at times, said Hastert’s duplicity will make it harder than ever for parents to trust other adults with their children.

“If Denny Hastert could do it, anyone could do it,’” Durkin said.

Hastert pleaded guilty last fall to violating banking law as he sought to pay $3.5 million to someone referred to in court papers only as Individual A to keep the sex abuse secret.

While the maximum sentence available for the banking violation was five years in prison, federal guidelines recommended probation to six months in prison. Judges rarely go outside the guidelines and usually do so only when the behavior underlying the crime — in this case sex abuse — is especially egregious.

In addition to the prison term, the judge also ordered Hastert to undergo sex-offender treatment, spend two years on supervised release from prison and pay a $250,000 fine to a crime victims’ fund.

Authorities say Hastert abused at least four students throughout his years at Yorkville High School about 45 miles southwest of Chicago.

The U.S. ambassador condemned the murder, just weeks after the U.S. government and numerous rights groups called on the government of the Muslim-majority country to better protect its citizens and secure free speech.

“I am devastated by the brutal murder of Xulhaz Mannan and another young Bangladeshi this evening in Dhaka,” U.S. Ambassador Marcia Bernicat said in a statement.

“Xulhaz was more than a colleague to those of us fortunate to work with him at the U.S. Embassy. He was a dear friend.”

According to a man who told local broadcaster Somoy TV that he had witnessed the attack, at least five young men took part in the killing and chanted “Allahu Akbar,” or “Allah is Great” as they left the scene.

Bangladesh’s government has blamed radical Islamists in the country, though the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility

for some of the murders, including the killing Saturday of university professor Rezaul Karim Siddique in a northwestern city.

Government officials dismissed the claim, insisting that the extremist group has no presence in the South Asian country.

Bangladesh has been riven by a wave of deadly attacks on foreigners, religious minorities and secular bloggers, raising fears that religious extremists are gaining a foothold in the country, despite its traditions of secularism and tolerance.

The U.S. government has said it is considering granting refuge to a select number of secular bloggers facing imminent danger in Bangladesh.

“We abhor this senseless act of violence and urge the government of Bangladesh in the strongest terms to apprehend the criminals behind these murders,” Bernicat said in her statement.

Gay rights activist and magazine editor stabbed to death in extremist attack Wire Report New Delhi | Unidentified assailants fatally stabbed two men in Bangladesh’s capital, including a gay rights activist who also worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, police said, in the latest in a series of attacks targeting atheists, moderates and foreigners.

Police said they suspected radical Islamists in the April 25 attack, which occurred two days after a university professor was hacked to death. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The victims were identified as USAID employee Xulhaz Mannan, who previously worked as a U.S. Embassy protocol officer, and his friend, Tanay Majumder, according to Mohammed Iqbal, a police officer in Dhaka’s Kalabagan area. Mannan also was an editor of Bangladesh’s first gay rights magazine, Roopbaan.

watermark Your LGBT life.

in other news Missouri religious objection bill fails in House legislative committee A Missouri religious objections proposal fails to get the approval of a key legislative committee in a setback for conservatives who hoped to add protections for those who cite their faith in denying services such as flowers or cakes for same-sex weddings. Members of a House committee voted 6-6, with a tie vote not enough to advance the measure. Supporters argued it’s needed to shield businesses from being forced to provide services that violate their religious beliefs following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year legalizing marriage of same-sex couples in all states.

Nebraska man faces two years in prison for burning rainbow flag An Omaha man accused of stealing a gay pride rainbow flag and burning it has been found guilty.

Cameron Mayfield, 24, was found guilty of arson.

Prosecutors said that the charge was prosecuted as a felony, not a misdemeanor, because the incident was investigated as a hate crime. Mayfield was accused of taking the flag from the porch of a lesbian couple who lived near him, setting it on fire and waving it in the middle of the street in March 2015. Mayfield faces up to two years in prison.

Same-sex couples set to legally marry in Columbia Colombia’s highest court has cleared the way for same-sex couples to marry in the conservative Roman Catholic nation. Gay couples in Colombia were already allowed to form civil unions, but the ruling by the Constitutional Court for the first time allows them to wed the same as heterosexual couples.

With the April 28 decision, Colombia joins only a handful of nations in Latin America allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, including Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. As part of the proceedings President Juan Manuel Santos’ government argued in favor of marriage rights for gay couples.

Same-sex couple wins custody battle with Thai surrogate A same-sex American-Spanish couple won a highprofile custody battle against a surrogate mother in Thailand who gave birth to their child but then decided she wanted to keep the baby when she found out they were gay. Bangkok’s Juvenile and Family Court ruled April 26 that the legal guardian of the 15-monthold child, named Carmen, is her American biological father, Gordon Lake. Lake and his partner, Spaniard Manuel Santos, both 41, have been stuck in Thailand since launching their legal battle after Carmen was born in January 2015. The couple will not be able to take Carmen out of the country right away pending the possibility of an appeal by the surrogate mother.

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May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

viewpoint

Sabrina Ambra

ladyfingers

I

Life lessons

have never been one to

read self-help books. In my 26 years of living, I’ve bought two; one was for school and the other was a flat surface I used to construct marijuana cigarettes on. Nothing against these types of books, of course.

I just have yet to find How-To: Life for the Awkward Gal Who Overanalyzes Everything. Until I do, I’ll leave what I can here and you’re welcome to use the help at your leisure. If the aforementioned book never makes it onto the shelves of Barnes & Noble, just remember I said it first. These are the life lessons I made-up out of things that have happened to me. Enjoy.

It was the summer of 2003: I was 13 years old, my mosquito bites were becoming bigger mosquito bites (I’m referring to my tits, though there were many mosquitoes that summer), and the world was in the palm of my pubescent hand. It was my second summer at the Catholic sleep-away camp I would call home for many summers after. This particular summer was important to the girls of Cabin 9. You see, we were the second-oldest girls in the entire camp: We stayed-up later, danced longer, and at the end of the session, we got to go on the mystical offproperty camping trip to the DLB (Dry Lake Bed).

What was so important about this trip was not the campfire; it was not the ghost stories; it wasn’t even

the fucking s’mores. No, this was bigger than that.

The oldest boy cabin had a tradition of scaring the living shit out of any girls camping in the DLB. But not that night, no sir. The Cabin 9 girls were going to retaliate. That night we were going to rewrite history, as well as learn how to shave our pubes from the way-too-advanced-for-herage girl, Lauren.

The plan was to take them down, one by one, by any means necessary and take them down we did.

While engaging in some light celebratory high-fives, I noticed a rustling in a bush nearby. I took it upon myself to tackle mystery bush boy and I did so in one swift leap. I was attached to his back when I brought him to the ground, but I was quickly thrown and my prized game was gone.

Nevertheless, we had won the battle. Hell hath no fury like 15 teens that just recently started filling-in their sports bras.

This is where my first life lesson comes in. We walked into chapel the following morning as the camp priest, Father J, was holding up the Jesus Wafer.

That’s typically the part of the mass where good Catholic folk are supposed to bow their heads in reverence. This was not the case that particular morning as all eyes were on me, eyes that were accompanied by facial expressions that read, “What the fuck did you do, Sabrina?!” I was asking myself the same question until Father J lowered the Christ Crispy Treat and displayed the world’s biggest (and holiest) black eye of all time. Yep, that’s right. I [unintentionally] assault-and-batteried the shit out of a Catholic priest.

Who has two thumbs and just got bumped up to first class on Damnation Airlines? It was me. I had the two thumbs and they were attached to the hands that were responsible for

battering one of God’s BFFs. We made our way to the dining hall where the camp cook was serving up a warm plate of Shame and Eggs, and the only person not talking about Father J’s black eye at breakfast was the holy man himself.

The plan was to rewrite history, not update it with

-Life is full of obstacles and challenges, not all of them need to be tackled.

-When life throws you lemons, make sure to not body slam them. It will be nearly impossible to make lemonade after that.

-There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but just

-Live. Love. Laugh. Look out for priests hiding in bushes.

I’m sure you all are wondering whatever happened with me and ol’ F.J. Rest assured, we’re totally cool now. It took six summers on staff and some serious schmoozing on my part, but we made it with

Hell hath no fury like 15 teens that just recently started filling-in their sports bras.

an addendum of priest brutality (I’m being really dramatic about this, but whatever). Needless to say, I was mortified and I would spend the rest of that summer being the girl who gave a shiner to the priest.

I feel my first life lesson is best expressed in the form of quotes you would find written on a shellframed picture of the beach in the home decor section of TJ Maxx.

because it’s dark doesn’t mean you’re necessarily in a tunnel. Take a minute to figure that out before jumping to (or in my case, on) conclusions.

-Keep calm and don’t assault your elders.

-Dance like no one is watching. If you realize someone might be watching, ask for a name because you might know them.

no hard feelings. I would like to believe that the story is told to the kiddies around the campfire every summer while they roast s’mores. Though realistically speaking, I’m probably the example they use for the camp rule to always have your flashlight.

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May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

viewpoint

mediA Jamie Hyman online director

ally agenda Meeting in the ladies room

A

llow me to introduce

myself: I am a straight, cisgender woman. I usually use the ladies’ room. I am who the evangelicals, fundamentalists and conservatives claim they hope to protect when they pass laws insisting that transgender people use restrooms that align with their sex at birth, regardless of how they look, feel, present or live now.

I didn’t ask for all of this concern, but it has been bestowed upon me, and since no one asked me how I feel about it, I thought I’d use this space to tell you.

Let’s start by taking the issue utterly, completely seriously. How would I feel if a man walked into the ladies’ room? What would I do?

I would say, “Excuse me, sir, but you have the wrong restroom.”

And most of the time, the man would look embarrassed or confused or say “Oops!” and turn around and walk out. This has never happened to me, but I have, in fact, been on the other side, spacing out and walking into the men’s room. I never even got the point of someone saying something to me – I saw male backs at urinals, turned on my heel and skedaddled out.

Let’s take things a step further, and pretend this is a transgender person who identifies as female and wants to use the ladies’ room, and I’ve made a misjudgment in my assumption of the person’s gender. Or let’s go ahead and pretend this is a man trying to pull one over on us all and wants to use the ladies room for whatever reason. Single-toilet ladies’ rooms lock, and all the rest have stalls, so this is a nonissue. The man would enter a stall, use the facilities, and leave. I’d shrug and wash my hands and move on with my life.

Now, let’s really dive deep, and visit the situation bathroom laws purport to protect against: a predator.

I’ve told the man he’s in the wrong restroom, but he’s there with the intent to assault me and he keeps coming toward me. If I had time, I’d run into a stall, lock myself in, and call for help.

If I didn’t, I’d scream for help and fight.

And here’s the thing: No measure of gender-policing laws will protect me against a determined predator.

Assault is illegal. It’s always been illegal. There are also a number of laws protecting against harassment, lewd and lascivious behavior, stalking and a whole host of other nasties that could happen when a predator corners a victim in ANY secluded space.

In response to Target’s recent statement that their restrooms would be transgender-inclusive, Anita Staver, president of the hate group Liberty Counsel, tweeted that she’s taking her Glock .45 caliber gun into the ladies’ room as her “bodyguard.” We reached out to Liberty Counsel and received a response from her husband, Mat. He said: “Women are not concerned about transsexuals committing violence. They are concerned about men using ‘gender identity’ as an excuse to stalk and sexually assault them.”

I am a woman, and I am not concerned about either of those things. But Mat’s clear message is that these laws aren’t about keeping transgender people out.

They’re about keeping predators out, and keeping women safe.

Mat is a liar.

He knows perfectly well, based on the points I made above, that the bathroom laws will do nothing to prevent assault. If Mat really wanted to prevent assault, he would do any or all of the following:

4. Empower and support transgender people. The more being transgender is normalized, the less fear people will have about the whole thing.

1. Invest in anti-assault education for men, programs teaching men that sexual violence is never acceptable.

2. Empower men who don’t assault women to stand up to other men who are acting inappropriately toward women.

5. Back off on these bathroom laws. Seriously, back off. They’re frequently

enough. However, there are also predators out there.

By drawing this line in the sand, these idiot lawmakers have indeed planted a seed in their minds, a seed they hope will grow into a loophole that lets them get away with their perversions.

And here’s the thing: No measure of gender-policing laws will protect me against a determined predator.

3. Fight for gender equality.

That means from health care to salaries, rip open, expose and denounce the systems that make it acceptable for women to be paid less, assaulted and told they are not to be trusted to handle their own health care decisions. Working to create a culture that respects and validates women as equals would go much, much further to prevent assault than any level of genderbased bathroom policing.

described by opponents as “solutions looking for a problem,” but it’s worse than that – they’ve created a problem. The laws didn’t somehow invent transgender people.

Transgender people have been living, shopping and yes, using public restrooms, for years with nary an incident. But now we have conservative men carrying video cameras into the women’s room to prove a point, which is disturbing

Stop planting the seeds. Just let the issue go.

As a certified, card-carrying woman, I am on record: The list above is what would make me feel safer.

Transgender people using a restroom? That doesn’t scare me, and that has never scared me.

However, Anita Staver, with a Glock, lurking in my neighborhood Target restroom?

Terrifying.

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May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

HALF OF

ALL PEOPLE

inCluding heterOsexual

WOMEN AND MEN Carry

“GAY GENES.” —Ilia State University

talking points we’ve got to stand side-by-side with all our neighbors - straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender; Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu immigrant, Native american - because the march for civil rights isn’t just about african americans, it’s about all americans.

—first laDy michelle obama, During the commencement sPeech she DelivereD at Jackson state university aPril 23.

whOOpi gOldBerg, rOsie O’dOnnell amOng stars jOining Cast FOr lgBt miniseries

t

he abc miniseries WHEN WE RISE, created by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk, Dustin Lance Black, adds four new stars to the cast. Emmy award winners Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O’Donnell join as San Francisco Health Department’s first openly gay employee and as a co-founder of the first lesbian organization in the U.S., respectfully. Also new to the cast are American Horror Story’s Dennis O’Hare as the Democratic party organizer Jim Foster and Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce as the father of gay rights activist Cleve Jones. The four Hollywood stars join an already star-packed cast led by Iron Man 3’s Guy Pierce and Weeds star Mary-Louise Parker. Black is joined by Milk director Gus Van Sant as executive producers. Van Sant will also direct the premiere episode of the seven-part miniseries. No broadcast date has been announced yet.

harvey Fierstien tO reprise his rOle in nBC’s HaIrSPraY LIVe!

H

espn Fires Curt shilling FOr transphOBiC FaCeBOOk pOst

arvey fierstein will rePrise his role as Edna Turnblad in NBC’s Hairspray Live!, the network’s next televised Broadway musical event. Fierstein won the Tony Award for the role when it debuted on Broadway in 2002. Also joining the cast is Oscar and Grammy Award winner Jennifer Hudson. Hudson will play Motormouth Maybelle. Based on the 1988 John Waters’ film of the same name, Hairspray follows the rise of an overweight teenager as she becomes a star on a local dance show in the middle of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Hairspray Live! airs on NBC in the fall. Martin Short and Derek Hough have also joined the cast.

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E

sPn fireD network analyst and former Boston Red Sox star pitcher Curt Schilling following his comments on Facebook about transgender people.

The network released a statement saying, “ESPN is an inclusive company.

Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.” Schilling, 49, reposted an image of an overweight man wearing a long blond wig and revealing women’s clothing. It included the phrase: “Let him in! To the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow minded, judgmental, unloving, racist bigot who needs to die!!!” Schilling added, “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves.”

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demi lOvatO, niCk jOnas CanCel nOrth CarOlina stOps On Future nOw tOur

y

oung PoP stars Demi lovato anD nick Jonas, who are currently touring together, are cancelling the North Carolina shows in Raleigh and Charlotte of their Future Now concert series. They made the announcement via a statement signed by both Lovato and Jonas, and posted to Lovato’s Twitter account.

“One of our goals for the tour has always been to create an atmosphere where every single attendee feels equal, included, and accepted for who they are,” the statement read.

The cancellation comes a few weeks after Lovato accepted the Vanguard Award from GLAAD. Jonas attended the ceremony.

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May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

in-depth: OrlandO Fringe

Pulling it off:

Fringe darling Addison Taylor drags Fringe Leaders George Wallace and Michael Marinaccio through history.

PHOTO By JAKE STEVEnS

Orlando Fringe celebrates 25 years. We look back on how the hell that happened

I

Billy Manes

t’s Just another regular

April Thursday in Orlando. The steamy afternoon has brought its kaleidoscopic blur of meteorology and subtext, of underachieving and overstatement, into its typical sea breeze collision, leaving the brightest colors to shine while the rest just wash away.

Addison Taylor, the lovely drag persona and Orlando Fringe regular, has agreed to join us in blue hair with a hat on it, there’s a bright red Radio Flyer wagon at the ready, a man in the corner takes pictures of bright buttons on the ground and the generalized frenzy of creating a festival pauses to take a look at itself, its history and its principals.

Orlando Fringe founder Terry Olson, currently holding the arts up

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high as director at the Orange County Office of Arts and Cultural affairs, is wasting no time hamming it up in Radio Flyer as Taylor pulls him around for an arranged photo shoot. First being pulled left, then being yanked right, Olson is a good sport. Though he may have mumbled one thing or another about arts funding and hotel bed taxes in advance of our meeting, he’s all smiles today, palatably proud of history he helped to create.

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“Well, It started when I was running SAK, and I took a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival,” he recalls. “I guess I had been in Scotland and I thought we should go perform there, which we did. SAK started at Renaissance festivals and we were familiar with Renaissance festivals, and we kept thinking ‘there needs to be a festival here in Orlando.’ A couple of us went

COntinued On pg. 28 | uu |

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| uu | Fringe History FrOm pg.27

to the Canadian Fringe producers’ meeting in Victoria that year, I believe. It was in November and we were like ‘well maybe, like, a year from next spring. What do you guys think?’ They were like, ‘Do it this spring!’”

That spring awakening in 1991 led to what is arguably Orlando’s greatest claim to its freak flag: Orlando Fringe (a recently shortened nomenclature for the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival). For all of its beer tenting, hobnobbing, pamphlet-sharing, haircoloring glory of recent years, the festival did have humble beginnings, Olson says. More humble than the unjuried, slightly (and intentionally) varnished silver it sits upon today, largely in Loch Haven Park.

“Rats, rotting materials, you name it,” he says, recalling the art of turning old downtown buildings into theaters.

“I remember seeing a show in a venue that was separated from another venue by pipe and drain, so you get two shows for the price of one. Really the show that you listened to was whichever one was louder,” current Fringe producer Michael Marinaccio chimes in with a laugh. He’ll have his go on the wagon a bit later.

Olson carried the festival for the first five years, winding through the tenets of city code. “The main thing was egress and exits. The city wanted it to happen. When I would try to do something crazy, I would try and get a proclamation from the mayor [Bill Fredericks] and hang it up really high the day the inspector would come by.”

Would it work?

“We didn’t know,” Olson says. “I thought it would be [accepted] and it was. That first year, we did a lot to try to get the press involved and we got on the 5 o’clock news. It used to be a big deal, and they interviewed some very expressive people…”

And the expressive people flooded in, Olson says. And, though he may have moved on to greener administrative pastures five years after its local inception, his heart still lies with the Fringe.

“Well, first of all I’m delighted that it’s continued to grow and be successful. Our original goals were to make a meeting place for the community that was an inclusive place where people from different walks of life would come together and rub shoulders, because they’re standing in line together, and talk

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as an artist, people expect you to have that sensitivity, and you have a fragile ego, and all that stuff. when you’re an arts leader, that’s not the case.

— beth marshall

PHOTO By JAKE STEVEnS

to each other, because you don’t know what you’re going to need to know about the shows until they started,” he says. “Creating that kind of meeting place and creating a place where artists can express themselves, those were basic goals and that has continued to be the case.”

Those goals included, he says, the ability to put a show on yourself without all of the posturing and waiting for an established theater company to take you on. There was a critical shift in power; the norms were being adjusted, reframed and re-energized. Fringe didn’t stand against the arts establishment, Olson says, but more likely invigorated it.

After all, putting on shows for 20 people in an abandoned downtown storefront with no air conditioning wasn’t exactly a challenge to the system. It was, however, empowerment from beneath.

By some purely Fringe-tastic twist of fate, Orlando theater powerhouse Beth Marshall floated into the picture, carrying the festival through to its next level. It wasn’t an immediate transition, she admits – there were debts ranging up to $65,000. But nothing about Fringe is supposed to be immediate, anyway.

“In 1997, I attended my first Fringe as a patron and a volunteer, and I ended up by a fluke, being put in the

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beer tent by Terry Olson, who had to run off for an emergency,” Marshall, who now runs her own production company, says. “This was in Heritage Square Park, and I ended up covering for him for a short amount of time.

And that was fun, because I had never served a beer in my life.”

Marshall soon after was producing, directing and acting, running the full Fringe racket. In 2002, things got more intense and serious.

“The year that I was associate producer, I just had a knowing come over me that I’m going to end up running this festival,” she says. She did. A seed was planted, but not without its storms to weather.

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“Artistically, one of the things that happened in 2001 was obviously Sept. 11,” she says. “And when that happened, the numbers that we had grown for international artists were down tremendously. At the same time, more Canadian festivals were booming. At the time, artists could make much more money doing the show.”

“Probably the thing I’m most proud of that I was doing was really going out to get these artists to these festivals, and they did come,” she adds. “And once that happened, they

COntinued On pg. 32 | uu |

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| uu | Fringe History FrOm pg.28

started telling each other, and it was less work for me.”

By 2012, she launched her own endeavor, Beth Marshall Productions. Arts administration, her de facto role with the Fringe, wasn’t quite the creative outlet she had been seeking, she says, with no disrespect. The meetings, the paper pushing, the rat race were all a trade-off for immersion in the arts, wholesale.

“I think the hardest part is coming to terms with the fact that you can’t please everyone, and you’ve really got to come to

terms with that fact, and not have a sensitivity to it,” she says. “As an artist, people expect you to have that sensitivity, and you have a fragile ego, and all that stuff. When you’re an arts leader, that’s not the case. I’m a tough cookie. But I’m not a morning person. I didn’t like getting up at 7:30 a.m. and meeting with the county and the city.”

Since Marshall’s stage-left exit, the reins have been taken up by executive director George Wallace (and producer Marinaccio), who have carried the nation’s longest-running Fringe festival to the historic levels it rests at today. Again, the ascent wasn’t a planned one; that’s the happenstance of Fringe.

“I started as a volunteer, and I volunteered for a few years,” Wallace says. “My first year volunteering was 2002. It was still downtown, and I remember this whole chaotic spirit and I fell in love with it. I won Volunteer of the Year in 2006 and in 2007; I still vividly remember this, I was sitting outside on my porch smoking a cigarette and I get a phone call ‘Girl, it’s Beth Marshall! Wanna be the volunteer coordinator?’ And, literally, that’s how it happened.”

Times changed, staff coordination changed (year-long staffs ebbed and flowed for a bit), Wallace became general manager and then, naturally, executive director. The festival was moved

to Loch Haven Park, the historic beer tent found its roots and the whimsical shows went on and on.

“I remember the first couple years thinking Loch Haven Park would be such a pivotal change,” Wallace recalls. “I think it was a big move for the organization at the time, I think one of the things I’m most proud of about my tenure is that we’re her and we have this beautiful space. It really does legitimize us as an arts organization. We now have moved into the large pool at United Arts, we have hit a $1 million annual operating budget, and we have annual programming, which speaks volumes of our organization, not just our

PHOTO By JAKE STEVEnS

Our original goals were to make a meeting place for the community that was an inclusive place where people from different walks of life would come together and rub shoulders.

— terry olson

artists, but our Fringe Fanatics.

We love them.”

And Fringe Fanatics come in all different stripes, according to Marinaccio. When asked about what a “fringe” population means to a Fringe festival, he’s clear on the fact that outsiders are welcome, but not necessarily given a leg up. As the festival increases its audience, the quality has to rise with its ships.

“Our very first meeting after I was hired as producer, we sat down and we shared a vision for the festival, and that is that we do not want to alienate anyone: We want to be inclusive not exclusive,” he says. “We have been branded for a long time as really avant-garde or really gay or whatever the trend was at the time, but a lot of the time our public faces were playing into those things. Our campaigns have been ‘everyone can fringe’ and ‘we have 100 shows rated G to OMG’” and not specifically gay, he says, although such over-thetop fare as the Lion Queen and Bathhouse: The Musical may have tilted that scale (at least in terms of appearances) in recent years.

But, ultimately, it’s Fringe and not the fringes that power the festival’s ever-growing machine.

And that’s something for Orlando to be proud of.

“Coming into this year, over the last four years, we’ve doubled artist attendance to the festival and artist payout, increased attendance to the shows by about 75 percent, which this year will be doubled, and moved from being in a singleroom office that was part of a parking garage, with three desks pushed up against each other, to being here with 5,000 square feet inside the Shakespeare Center. It’s pretty incredible,” Marinaccio says.

Oh, and there’s always that beer tent for when you’re off the wagon.

“People always say ‘How do you describe Fringe?’ I have one word ‘Community,’” Wallace says. “My favorite piece is not the shows. I love the shows, but my favorite piece is sitting out on that beer tent for that one time a year and you get to see it. I will be tired coming off 18-hour days pissed off at something, and I know I can go to that beer tent and get reenergized.”

more inFormation

WHaT: Orlando Fringe WHen: May 18-30 WHere: Various Locations TiCKeTS: OrlandoFringe.org

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Some shows we won’t miss in 2016 on our wagon ride through Orlando Fringe. We like to watch.

Jamie Hyman, Brendan O’Connor and Jeremy Williams

Slut Like Me presented By lOgan dOnahOO – OrlandO, Fl

Screw You Revue presented By naked BaCOn prOduCtiOns – new yOrk, ny gOld venue – OrlandO museum OF art

P

F

BrOwn venue – OrlandO shakespeare theater

art stand-up comedy, part musical theatre, part improv, this three-time Orlando Fringe Patron’s Pick winner is back, featuring Lady Winifred and Didi Panache, who have traveled the U.S. and the world and will soon be packing their glittery bags for Orlando. Word on the street is nothing is too taboo for the Screw You Revue, whose stars share both a stage and a dead husband and are committed to challenging the threshold of every audience they entertain. “Like seeing Martin and Lewis if Dean was a sexy, seven-foot torch singer and Jerry a stroke survivor,” their website states, this drag comedy duo’s performances in the Gold Venue are obviously for mature audiences only. Want to sample the goods before you dedicate some of your precious Fringe funds? Lady Winifred and Didi host live Periscope chats Tuesdays at 10 p.m. EST on their website, LadyWinifredAndDidi.com.

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ringe favorite Logan Donahoo, the safari tour guide for the wildly popular Guide to the Gays shows, returns with a new concept! Slut Like Me is a multi-media, comedic classroom where patrons (adults only, please!) will learn all of the secrets and skills needed to finally and fully release their inner sluts. Donahoo says Slut Like Me is like an X-rated TEDTalk that mashes up comedy, games and bluntly honest sex advice. In previous years, Donahoo’s shows have quickly sold out so prospective students may want to sharpen their pencils and book tickets early. From flirting to posting on Craigslist to getting that fateful, dreaded phone call from the Health Department, Logan’s Brown Venue show features strong language, hip-hop music, and covers all the important lessons dedicated, quality sluts need to know. Yes, this WILL be on the test, so pay attention!

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21 Chump Street: The Musical presented By CaliBan prOduCtiOns – OrlandO, Fl

W

purple venue – OrlandO shakespeare theater

ant to take in some theater but you’re in a rush? Are you a huge fan of both Hamilton and Johnny Depp? Then 21 Chump Street: The Musical is the Fringe show for you. The action-packed, bite-size musical written

by Lin-Manuel Miranda (yes, THAT Lin-Manuel Miranda, he of Hamilton and In the Heights) lasts a mere and frenzied fifteen minutes. 21 Chump Street will take the stage in the Purple Venue and tells the story of a Lake Worth high school student who falls in love with an undercover cop. The plot is based on an episode of NPR’s This American Life, during which a student in love with a narc found himself arrested for dealing drugs he was selling in order to impress his crush. Unlike many of Orlando Fringe’s other shows, this one is teen-friendly – patrons thirteen years old and up are welcome to partake.

Broken Bone Bathtub presented By siOBhan O’lOughlin – BrOOklyn, ny

W

COmFOrt venue

atch a woman come to terms with mortality and the fragility of life while being naked in a stranger’s bath tub. No seriously, the show is in a bathroom.

This is the kind of innovative theater that Fringe Festivals like ours should be supporting. Squeeze into a restroom in an Orlando resident’s private home and watch Siobhan O’Loughlin’s solo show unfold with nothing between you but tile and soap suds. O’Loughlin’s idea for the show came after a bicycle accident where she had to use bathtubs at friends’ houses to bathe because of her cast, and thought it would be cathartic to invite in strangers to hear her wax poetic, while she … waxed her legs.

We haven’t heard which porcelain theater the brave thespian will be performing in, but at least we know the best seat in the house will be the throne.

Simpleton: The Legend of President Trump presented By aCting passiOnate – lakeland, Fl gOld venue – OrlandO museum OF art

A Pole Dance Revue presented By missFit pOle prOduCtiOn – lake mary, Fl

y

silver venue – OrlandO reparatOry theater

ou read that right: It’s a pole dancing show.

Even though it should be self-explanatory, we’re still a little confused - is pole dancing really theater? Is it dance? Is it an excuse for strippers who can’t do burlesque to make money at a theater festival? Maybe, but it still sounds fun! And maybe your mom was wrong all these years and the pole wasn’t such a bad place to end up anyway.

According to its program, A Pole Dance Revue “follows the roots of pole dancing and exhibits the many diverse styles that have emerged over the ages” which means, there is more than one way to hold onto a pole with your thighs. Because art.

Maybe they’ll use their hands! The skill level of the pole performers ranges from U.S. Champions to housewives and they’ll be dancing in multiple styles ranging from “exotic to slapstick comedic” which we thought meant that you’re allowed to laugh if they fall, but they’re really talking about someone dressed up like Charlie Chaplin, on a pole. The program says this show is suitable for ages 13+ so feel confident in your parenting skills and bring little Sally to the pole dance show that you know everyone is going to be talking about.

Also, let’s make #onapole a thing.

Darlings

presented By animal engine – new yOrk, ny

t

pink venue – OrlandO reparatOry theater

his looks like a very promising reimagining of the classic Peter Pan story, told from the view of the parents left behind. It is literally a play about empty nester parents whose children have flown away. So sad. This is the premiere of a new work by New York’s Animal Engine duo, most known for their fantastic clowning work. The two talented actors have made a name for themselves with strong physical theater skills and spellbinding storytelling. It promises to be a heavy piece, as they attempt to show what happened to the Darlings when their three children disappeared in one night.

A ripe emotional roller coaster that I can’t wait to make me cry in public.

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n the Broadway smash Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda asks how “the 10-dollar founding father without a father” grows up “to be a hero and a scholar?” Simpleton asks no such question because this show is not about a founding father or an American hero; it is about the (likely) Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump. This musical uses rap, hip hop and R&B to examine the state of the nation and asks the simple question: What the hell happens if Trump actually wins the 2016 presidential election? Written by Thom Mesrobian, Samuel Hammersly and Seth Brown and directed by Mesrobian and Mark Hartfield, this musical parody looks to the future and begs the voting public, don’t let this happen! Hide your kids, hide your wife and hide your liberal values, cause in this show the stakes are high… and the hairdo is hilarious.

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Oh Manada! presented By BOylesquetO – tOrOntO, Canada

a

Orange venue – OrlandO shakespeare theater

Canadian boy burlesque crew is coming to town to shake their beaver trapping moose knuckles at your sweaty balaclava. They’ll have Mounties and lumbersexuals galore, and they’ll be super nice to you when you stuff loonies and toonies down their ski pants. Insert Canadian joke and Canadian joke.

From what we’ve seen on the Edmonton Fringe Facebook page, they also run around the grounds in red short shorts and feather headdresses to promo their shows. So there’s that. So to recap, a bunch of super cute Canadian boys are having a show where they dress up in uber-Canadian regalia and then dance on stage and shake their Cloddhoppers at you.

Sex with Animals

presented By luCy taFler presents / ryan gOOd – COpthOrne Bank, uk

W

Blue venue – OrlandO shakespeare theater

e know it sounds like an evening at Hank’s but it’s really just a comedic look at how animals are all fucking sex freaks. If you were like us and you absolutely loved Isabella Rosselini’s paper puppet series about animals doing the nasty, this show is definitely for you.

The distractingly good looking Ryan Good puts a magnifying lens to the super weird sexual habits of the animal world as he explores his own sexuality.

The NY Post described it as “David Attenborough meets Eddie Izzard on Grindr.” Which we’ve totally done already and we had a good time, so we put this show at the top of our list.

Space

presented By huBris theatre COmpany – BrOOklyn, ny

s

BrOwn venue – OrlandO shakespeare theater

The Animatronicans presented By mO laughs COmedy – OrlandO, Fl yellOw venue – OrlandO shakespeare theater

W

hat happens when a gaggle of theme park attractions are put into the same house to live together and those attractions stop being polite and start getting real? It’s sure to get real funny when the comedic minds of Jeff Jones, Doug Ba’aser, James Keaton, Janine Klein and Josh Siniscalco are involved. The Animatronicans lets you peek through the curtains as you spy on the 16th president, an imaginative finder of dreams, a Norwegian polar bear and the dad from a rotating theater as they try to live their lives under one roof without getting into each other’s way. Will they all be singing “thank you for being a friend” when it’s all done? Directed by the witty and masterful Michael Wanzie, you are guaranteed to walk out of this show never looking at theme park characters the same way again.

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cience fiction and nerd culture have been displacing the gays at Orlando Fringe the last few years, possibly as a result of the rise of nerd subject matter in regular pop culture as a whole.

So the presence of a space opera (sans opera) is welcome, but unsurprising.

This show looks at what happens when you take four people and put them on the edge of the known universe as they tumble through space looking for some planet or something. Then the Gods shake them up like a dark matter shake ‘n’ bake and we get to watch what happens. It sounds like a Captain Picard in the holodeck with a candlestick kind of scenario.

The play was written and directed by Orlandoan Corey Volence (Key of E) and designed by Fringe favorite and Disney Imagineer Evan Miga (Dog Powered Robot). Music is by Kevin Becker, who recorded a totally original synth score for the show.

These three specialize in cinematic storytelling flare, so don’t be afraid to puff puff pass on the green lawn before heading to this mind buster.

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THE BARBER FUND HELPING THOSE LIVING WITH CANCER

www.thebarberfund.org WE HONOR THEIR COURAGE. WE HONOR THEIR STRENGTH. WE HONOR THEIR FIGHT!

ONE LOVE!

PRESENTS:

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$12 at the door Happy Hour Pre-Party 5pm at Sonoma Kitchen Drink specials and live music!

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In Memory of John “Tweeka” Barber 1972 - 2011

IN CLOSE QUARTERS: A Story of Love and War presented By wanzie presents / d squared prOduCtiOns – OrlandO, Fl

F

silver venue – the OrlandO rep

orty years after the actual fall of Saigon, Michael Wanzie takes us back to Vietnam, and one of the darkest periods in American history, with his newest Fringe show, In Close Quarters: A Story of Love and War. Two soldiers are trapped in an underground bunker in an area swarming with Vietcong. They have lost their weapons and to leave the bunker will surely lead to capture or death. Forced together in isolation, the two soldiers forge an unusual bond, knowing that at this moment all they have in life and death are each other. But what happens when that bond is tested as one soldier “comes out” and reveals that he is gay? On the 23-year anniversary of Wanzie’s first Fringe show, he asks, as the bond fractures and fists start flying, can the two soldiers continue to rely and depend on each other when they are in such close quarters?

Blue Star Presents: The Ladies of the Peek-A-Boo Lounge presented By Bluelala prOduCtiOns – OrlandO, Fl

l

BlaCk venue –the venue

ife is always a cabaret when Blue Star and the ladies of the Peek-A-Boo Lounge are in town. Just as with any VarieTEASE show, your emcee Ms. Blue is bringing you Florida’s finest females as they shake a tail feather to get you in the mood.

These delectable dolls will be dancing and prancing in a show filled with comedy, dancing and plenty of tassels, oh myyy! This show is not only performance art, ladies and gentlemen, but it’s also educational so bring your pencils and paper and take notes. Reigning as the longest running burlesque show in Orlando, come see why these ladies are the best in the business. Don’t believe me? Just check out their awards. Now get in formation and don’t forget to bring dollar bills y’all.

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5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche

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on’t judge it by its title, (even though it makes it sound like a gross YouTube video your brother is always trying to get you to watch), this show is a must-see.

Join the Susan B. Anthony society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein for their annual brunch of quiche and 1950s privilege. Five women host their annual egg pie eating event in an idyllically normal community center, with only three rules – no men, no meat, no manners. Their annual quiche love fest starts out civil, until there’s a threat of a Communist attack, white gloves come off, girls kiss girls, and dated conventions fly out the window.

Expect a lack of a fourth wall with complete audience immersion, and expect a million vagina-quiche references. In fact, I challenge you to take a sip from your purple Orlando Fringe “water” bottle every time the word quiche is mentioned.

This hilarious (looking) comedy won Best Overall Production at the 2012 NYC International Fringe Festival and looks like a must-see show for this season’s fest.

watermark Your LGBT life.

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arts and entertainment

“i

Krista DiTucci

t’s a fine balance of visual

art and social commentary,” performance artist Belaxis Buil Buil says. “I’ve used galleries and museums as a way to speak to people and discuss something that’s taking place in society. If I present it in a visual format, they will pay attention in a different way and respond.

It’s like they walk out completely awakened.”

That’s what Harvey Milk was about.

In May, Sarasota will celebrate its 7th annual Harvey Milk Festival with three days of festivities including live art, theater, workshops, music and parties from May 12-14. The timing is perfect; the vanguard LGBT municipal leader of San Francisco would have turned 86 on May 22.

May 12 marks the opening night kickoff party and live art performance, High Resolution Paradise, by Belaxis Buil. Buil is a performance and multimedia artist, dancer, and choreographer from Miami. The event will be held at Bowne’s Lab Theatre of the Florida Studio Theatre at $10 per ticket.

Shannon Fortner, president of Harvey Milk Festival, describes the performance as a threehour choreographed piece with six professional dancers.

It also includes a fashion show featuring pieces from a Miami seamstress who collaborated with Buil. Fortner says the night turns into an impromptu dance party in spirit of the opening night celebration, a celebration of what Milk did to motivate the LGBT movement. It’s intended to recruit you. It’s also intended to remind you.

The concept of High Resolution Paradise stems from Buil’s nostalgia for a small South Beach LGBT community.

Buil says over the years, the community that was once “like being in Candyland” has been replaced with tourists and commercial shops.

“The magic just isn’t there anymore,” Buil says. “I remember this drag queen bar café and restaurant. I go to South Beach longing to find it and it’s not there. We need to learn to preserve.”

Buil attempts to invoke strong feelings by using visual imagery like hurricanes destroying palm trees to symbolize wiping out the community. Buil says she also depicts a club world drug scene during which the audience can experience the performers’ trip.

“I want to create an environment for the viewer to have a live art experience that engages all of their senses,” Buil says. “They will understand that I’m discussing the historical preservation of the gay community not being there anymore and using the hurricane to destroy the scene.”

The opening night celebration will continue with an after-party at 10 p.m. on the second floor of the Gator Club. Admission is free with High Resolution Paradise ticket purchase and $5 for all other guests.

The opening night after party will feature music from Eduardo Correa, a Sarasota singer, songwriter, and producer.

Correa’s style is described as “tropically-tinged electric pop and sun-kissed disco.” Correa will be promoting his upcoming album Summer to be released in June 2016. Locals wanting to get a sneak peak of Correa can also find him at “Gay Guy Happy Hour” on May 5 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at

COntinued On pg. 45 | uu |

MILK

AND HONEY

Sarasota’s annual Harvey Milk Festival returns with activism, anger and hope

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Got Mustard?

We’ve got more weiner than we can handle.

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| uu | Harvey Milkfest from pg.43

the Starlite Room.

Also in store for the opening night after-party is an excerpt by Octavio Campos to help promote his show the following evening.

Day Two of the Harvey Milk Festival, May 13, will mark the inauguration of HMF Theatre, an initiative to bring internationally acclaimed LGBTQ artists to the live stage to share an intimate evening with audiences.

“I’m excited for the new theater program,” Fortner says. “It’s a direction I wanted to approach when I started this festival in 2010.”

The HMF Theatre debut performance, Octavio Campos: America’s Next President, will be held at 7 p.m. at Florida Studio Theatre’s Keating Theatre for $15 per ticket, with a pre-show mixer at 6 p.m. in the Bea Friedman Room.

Octavio Campos is a Miamiborn Cuban-American dance theater artist. He has presented classes and workshops worldwide to performance and visual artists, business leaders, atrisk LGBTQ youth and adults, as well as incarcerated women and girls. Campos is a resident artist at Miami Theater Center, grant panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, producer of the Knight Art Challenge grant program “Sandbox Series,” and founding artistic director of the interdisciplinary nonprofit arts organization Camposition.

America’s Next President, a production with BodyTalk directed

by Yoshiko Waki, Rolf Baumgart, and Camposition, recently premiered in Germany and will be performed for the first time in the U.S. at the Harvey Milk Festival.

“My goal in Germany was to introduce a lot of the issues we are dealing with as a nation to the community,” Campos says. “I asked them what they thought and I literally turned my body into a target and painted a target on my belly button.”

Campos says he brought out guns and passed out rifles to audience members in an effort to “stop negative hating and start positive shooting,” which he explains during the performance.

He says bringing out guns in public in Germany is very controversial because only those with hunting licenses are allowed to carry guns, so people got very angry. Campos says introducing guns at the Harvey Milk Festival performance is likely

We try to encourage a political platform for people to have a voice. We try to do that through art, performance, and music. We don’t want to mimic a Pride festival. We want to stay focused as a political platform with bands that support the cause to perform and celebrate and create a magical feeling.

—Sarasota Harvey Milk Festival President Shannon Fortner

to stir up similar emotions since Harvey Milk was killed by a gun.

“I start the environment off by getting it tense and loaded, but end it with hope to the idea of expanding and the idea of being queer and changing culture,” Campos says. “We break down the tension of power and games and position and politics, then bring it down to a dance party and embrace this idea of queerness.”

The performance places an LGBTQ twist on historic events and will feature a president who embraces a “queer nation.” Campos says he hopes to emphasize the queerness in all of us and make “queer” a positive and inclusive term.

“Everyone is queer,” Campos says. “We are all performers whether it’s in our jobs or in our homes, and if you don’t do things in the way everyone expects you to do them, you’re looked at as an alien.”

Fortner says the night will include a little bit of musical performance, which will help set the tone for the music festival the following day. Campos will also hold an artist talk after his piece.

“He’s pretty amazing,” Fortner says. “He’s really into pushing people’s buttons but re-embracing our stereotypical social downfalls and reinventing them. I think people will leave with a different mindset and will see negative

things as more positive.”

Following Campos’s performance, Mandeville Beer Garden will host an after-party and will donate proceeds from Left Hand’s Nitro Milk Stout sales to the festival.

The Harvey Milk Festival will conclude on May 14 beginning with a workshop by Campos, “Emotional Gymnastics,” from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Florida Studio Theatre with $20 admission. Attendees are encouraged to bring a towel and water and wear comfortable workout clothing, socks, and sneakers.

“The workshop kind of awakens your nervous system and reconnects you,” Fortner says. “It’s a pretty intense workshop.”

The 10-band music jamboree will kick off at 2:30 and will run until midnight. Included in the lineup are: AVAN LAVA, a New York pop band described as “a natural bridge between late nightclub culture and kaleidoscopic pop theatricality”; PWR BTTM, a queer two-person punk band “bringing elements of performance and drag artistry into DIY culture”; Krisp, a Miami indie dance band “combining electro dance, chill wave, and indie rock to produce a unique blend of carefree groove and 80’s inspired synth lines”; TOMBOi, a Jacksonville queer

watermark Your LGBT life.

electron band which “incorporates psychedelic pop vocals, driving guitar leads, and a combination of live and electronic beats”; AMFMS, a Baltimore band whose music “straddles a fine line between lo-fi basement tapes and vintage ‘80s college radio hooks”; Millionyoung, otherwise known as South Florida’s Mike Diaz, “a refreshing form of chill wave with bright synths and dreamy dripping nostalgia-inducing backdrops and the occasional guitar”; Bluejay, a Miami underground band, combining “a mix of indie, tribal, folk, and pop”; Someday River, an experimental folk rock project and art platform “incorporating sweeping drum patterns and funk bass over songs rooted in folk”; Physical Plant, a Sarasota collaborative rock project serving up “high-energy indie psych rock with nary a dreamy synth in sight”; and Sam Robertson, a singersongwriter who uses “smooth angelic melodies and raw lyrics to bring listeners to another time and place.”

“We try to encourage a political platform for people to have a voice,” Fortner says. “We try to do that through art, performance, and music. We don’t want to mimic a Pride festival. We want to stay focused as a political platform with

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bands that support the cause to perform and celebrate and create a magical feeling.”

Also included in Saturday’s festivities are free family theater workshops by Ria Cooper in which youth and families are invited to attend a 30-minute session of community-building and social activism through theater. Cooper, director and applied theater practitioner, has worked with LGBT and at-risk organizations using theater as a tool for building community and creating social change. Workshops will be held at 3:30 and 4:30 p.m.

The final after-party to mark the festival’s end will take place at M.A.D.E. restaurant in downtown Sarasota and will include a DJ and drink specials.

The Harvey Milk Festival is made possible not only by guests and the community, but also by sponsors. Fortner says Whole Foods and Smokin Joe’s have been sponsors since 2010 and have been two of the festival’s biggest supporters every year since. Other sponsors include official hotel sponsor Aloft, Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Florida Studio Theatre, Camposition, BodyTalk, Gator Club, Herald-Tribune, Flour Parlor, Equality Florida, SRQ Arts Presenters, Bud Light, Gold Coast Eagle Distributing, Feel Magik Productions, Mattison’s, Clothesline Creative, Starbucks, The Players Theatre, Our Sarasota Fund, GSHRadio.com, Rainbow411.com, Sarasota Day, 96.5 WSLR, the Rainbow Knot, SarasotaMusicScene.com, and the Shamrock.

The newest partners are Sarasota Film Festival, Sarasota Underground and Big Top Brewery.

Fortner says Sarasota Film Festival is a great partnership, because HMF has its own film festival in the fall. Additionally, Sarasota Underground will conduct raw footage and community Q&A at the festival. Other partners include Prism Youth Initiative, and ALSO Youth.

“This festival is raising awareness about Harvey Milk, but also getting people to awaken their inner activist and raise their voice,” Fortner says. “We want to inspire youth and show them that they can be heard and get the support of the community.”

Tickets to workshops and performances can be purchased at harveymilkfestival.org/tickets.

For more information, please visit harveymilkfestival.org.

45

Thanks Orlando Watermark readers, for choosing me as your ‘Favorite Local Attorney.’

Check out the first installment of my ‘Same Sex Marriage Guide’ video series at WatermarkOnline.com

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film think of your role as Tigris?

The eye of the Tigris

Actress Eugenie Bondurant on the hunger and the game

(above)

All Stripes:

Eugenie Bondurant, from the runway to the silver screen.

Photo by Susan Jefferson

I

role that is both feminine and feline in the fourth and final installment of The Hunger Games film saga The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 2, based on Suzanne Collins’ wildly popular books. Bondurant’s agent sent a video audition to the Mockingjay’s casting agent, who invited the actor to a callback interview with the director. Weeks later, she got the part. It was her first movie since playing Cherry in 2008’s Patsy, and her biggest, exceeding her billing as “Weeping Woman” in 1999 Fight Club with Ed Norton.

Bondurant was discovered after surviving non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma 30 years ago. The chemotherapy not only turned her into a flourishing cancer survivor, but the loss of her hair in the early aftermath of treatment also accentuated her androgynous features and catapulted her into a modeling career in the U.S. and Europe. With angular features, classic cheekbones, Bondurant can appear both willowy and seductive or exotic and gender-neutral.

Setting herself apart from the norm is Bondurant’s comfort zone. A modeling trip to Los Angeles led to an acting career. .

Watermark: The role of

Sterling Powell

met Eugenie Bondurant 12 years

ago at an art event in Tampa shortly after she married her husband, Paul Wilborn. Paul at that time was the City of Tampa’s Culture Affairs Director; I was writing my “Scenes” column for Weekly Planet, and Eugenie was a marvelous addition to the Tampa Bay social scene.

We both loved fashion and great art - so we sort of hit it off. Friends ever since, we’ve seen each other often, especially since Paul and Eugenie moved to St Petersburg when Paul became executive director at the Palladium Theater.

Bondurant was a well-known on-camera and Meisner acting coach at the prestigious Patel Conservatory in Tampa. But it’s not every day

one of your friends ends up in one of Hollywood’s greatest film series franchises. So I recently chatted with Eugenie, whose extraordinary journey has taken her from the runways of the Big Apple and Paris to a featured role as “Tigris” in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2.

Hunger Games’ director Francis Lawrence was looking for that special actor to bring Tigris, the vital

watermark Your LGBT life.

Tigris is about beauty and image. Have you always been comfortable in your own skin?

Bondurant: Sometimes yes and sometimes no. When I was a teen in junior high school, being the tallest and youngest in my class was challenging. Once I realized that being tall has many advantages, and I would be tall no matter what I do, I have owned it. Beauty and image… when your career starts as a model in New York and Paris, one figures out quickly that what one designer doesn’t like, the next one loves. I’ve learned to love what I have. The image challenges that cause me to lose a booking are the same ones that help me book a job.

You’re just finishing your class at the Patel Conservatory in Tampa where you coach acting. What did your students

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Seriously, they were over the moon.

I had to keep the news quiet for nine months. I booked, fitted and filmed over those months and then had to wait until the lovely people at Lionsgate found the perfect time to announce the role of Tigris. I told my class to wait for a big announcement the next week. Being teens, they took what was going to be announced with a grain of salt, until one of my darlings saw the announcement on Facebook, jumped up in the middle of Spanish class and then proceeded to spread the word.

What did you share with them about persistencehanging in there?

One thing that I’ve learned that I’ve shared is that this career ebbs and flows. When it’s in an ebbing phase, we must surround ourselves with things that we enjoy. We must work on our craft, maybe thinking outside the box. Always look for the opening doors.

How was it working with Jennifer Lawrence?

She’s an incredibly talented woman.

She is smart and funny. She’s a joy to be around. After having the privilege of working with her, now I understand why she won the Oscar.

Tell me about your husband.

Paul is another smart cookie. He’s funny and always making me laugh.

When I’m going through a slump, his best phrase is “Your life is a living hell.” (in jest of course). We play together. We sing cabaret together.

He writes a radio comedy that we both perform with The Radio Theatre Project. We work and play together but we also lead independent lives in certain areas. I have to wake up early in the morning to keep up with the guy.

How was this whole Hollywood thing for him?

Are you kidding me? That is where we met – he was ALL OVER IT! At the L.A. premiere he was taking photos of people taking photos of me., What’s next? Are you working on anything now?

Just finished a role in a tremendously talented local filmmaker Victoria Jorgensen’s short film.

Are you happy?

Tremendously…except when my back hurts.

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Grab a coffee, coffee take a survey,

change the world.

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@polkpridefl watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

community calendar

event planner

arts+entertainment

OrlandO

OrlandO

Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast

Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, May 3- 8, Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Orlando. 844-513-2014; DrPhillipsCenter.org Cinco de Mayo @ Southern, May 5, Southern Nights, Orlando. 407-412-5039; SouthernNightsORL.com The Producers, May 6, Osceola Arts, Kissimmee. 407-846-6257; OsceolaArts.org Kentucky Derby Day Party, May 7, The Hammered Lamb, Orlando. 407-704-3200; HammeredLamb.com Free Movie night in the Park: West Side Story, May 7, Loch Haven Park, Orlando.

407-447-1700; OrlandoShakes.org HOT TEA Pool Party with DJ GRInD, May 8, Aloft Downtown, Orlando. 407-380-3500; AloftOrlandoDowntown.com

monDay, may 16 DubsDreaD, orlanDo

Oh my jOsephine Deborah Cox plays the legendary singer and actress Josephine Baker in the world premiere of Josephine at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota running now through May 29.

10-year Macbeth Bash, May 12, One80 Skytop Lounge, Orlando. 407-913-0180; 180Downtown.com

Painting at The Space, May 6, The Space at 2106, Tampa. 813-575-0230; TheSpaceAt2106.com

Trinity K. Bonet, May 13, Pulse Nightclub, Orlando. 407-649-3888; PulseOrlandoClub.com

Equality Florida St Pete Gala 2016, May 7, Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg. 727-892-5798; TheMahaffey.com

Silver Party, May 14, Orlando Fringe, Orlando. 407-648-0077; OrlandoFringe.org Amy Schumer live, May 16, CFE Arena, Orlando. 407-823-3070; CFEArena.com Orlando Celebrity lip Sync Battle, May 16, Parliament House Footlight Theatre, Orlando. 407-425-7571; ParliamentHouse.com you Don’t Know Ivanhoe Pub Crawl, May 16, Ivanhoe Village, Orlando. 407-648-0077; OrlandoFringe.org

tampa Bay Bears at the Beach, May 6, Southern Nights, Tampa. 813-559-8625; SouthernNightsTPA.com

lumière Tampa, May 8, The Wrecking Hall, Tampa. 479-461-3966; NicoleHays.com GnC young Adults Group, May 9, Metro Wellness & Community Centers, St. Petersburg. 727-321-3854; MetroTampaBay.org TBGlCC May Dinner Meeting, May 10, The Barrymore Hotel, Tampa. 813-223-1351; TBGLCC.org Balance Tampa Bay’s May Social, May 12, Piquant, Tampa. 813-251-1777; PiquantHydePark.com

The SMART Ride Kick-Off and Info Session, May 12, Metro Wellness & Community Centers, St. Petersburg. 727-321-3854; MetroTampaBay.org Freakshow – A Polk Pride Sideshow, May 13, Club Main Street, Lakeland.

863-940-9756; Facebook.com/ ClubMainStreet Mad Hatters 2nd Anniversary Weekend, May 13-15, Mad Hatters Ethobotanical Tea Bar, St. Petersburg. 727-800-5030; MadHattersTeaBar.com TIGlFF presents: Shared Rooms, May 14. HCC Ybor Performance Theater, Tampa.

813-879-4220; TIGLFF.com HCDEC Spring Fling 2016, May 14, DoubleTree by Hilton, Tampa. 813-879-4800; HillsboroughCountyDemocrats.org ybor Food Fest 2016, May 14, Centro Asturiano de Tampa, Tampa. 813-229-2214; CentroAsturianoTampa.org

11th Annual Taste of South Tampa, May 15, Tampa Federation of Garden Club Cirlce, Tampa. 813-251-5059; TampaGardenClub.com Rupaul’s Drag Race: Battle of the Seasons, May 15, The RITZ Ybor, Tampa. 813-247-3729; TheRitzYbor.com

sarasOta Phantom, April 21- May 8, Manatee Performing Arts Center, Bradenton. 941-748-5875; ManateePerformingArtsCenter.com Josephine starring Deborah Cox, April 27- May 29, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Sarasota. 941-351-8000; AsoloRep.org lIVE ART - High Resolution Paradise, May 12, Florida Studio Theatre, Sarasota. 941-366-9000; FloridaStudioTheatre.org Harvey Milk Festival, May 14, Five Points Park, Sarasota. 941-228-4872; HarveyMilkFestival.org

The GLBT Center of Central Florida and The Harvey Milk Foundation invite you to join them at Dubsdread for the 4th Annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast and Award Show. The breakfast will be attended by special guests Stuart Milk, who will also give the “State of Global Equality” address, and Ryland Whittington.

Whittington is an 8-year-old transgender boy whose documentary Raising Ryland will be released this summer by CNN Films. Receiving awards at the ceremony will be attorney Mary Meeks, Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. Tickets are $45 for an individual or $500 for a table of 10. Tickets and tables are available online at HarveyMilkBreakfast.Eventbrite.com

Orlando Gay Chorus: “We are Family” saturDay, may 14 anD sunDay, may 15 the PlaZa live, orlanDo Come out and celebrate the power of family, community and inclusion with the Orlando Gay Chorus’ “We Are Family” concert. OGC artistic director and conductor James Rode will lead the chorus through a program to highlight all families with selections “We Are Family,” “Let the River Run,” “Tell My Father,” “It Takes a Whole Village” and many more. Concerts are at 7:30pm on Saturday and 4:30pm on Sunday. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Student tickets are only $10. Advance tickets are available by calling 407-841-7464 or visiting OrlandoGayChorus.org.

tampa Bay

Bear soup Mix - Best Bear Run may 12- 15 flamingo resort, st. Petersburg Flamingo Resort hosts Bear Soup Mix 2016, a free bear weekend without the expense of a run. Attend for one day or come out for the entire weekend. Bear Soup Tampa will be providing concerts, shows, movies and pool parties all for free. Contests and raffles all weekend long, all you pay for is food and lodging.

Flamingo Resort is offering discounted rates for the event, make sure to book early. Bear Soup Tampa’s special guest all weekend long will be Falcon star Austin Wolf. Make reservations by contacting Flamingo Resort at 727-321-5000 or visit FlamingoFla.com.

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

event planner and community calendar is brougHt to you by curtis protective services • 1-800-5651-8368 • curtissecurity.com watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

51

2016

Art by: Michael Vollbracht

SATURDAY, MAY 7 7PM - 10PM THE MAHAFFEY THEATER 400 1st Street South, St. Petersburg

Please join us for a wonderful evening, for a great cause. There will be delicious cuisine by Locale Market/FarmTable Restaurant, open bar, Kahwa Coffee, dancing, a special performance

by Paul Wilborn & Blue Roses featuring Eugenie Bondurant, a fantastic live and silent auction, and an exciting program including a State of the State Address by our CEO Nadine Smith.

Tickets $125 • RSVP and purchase tickets at EQFL.ORG/GreaterStPeteGala or call 727-822-2122 Tickets held at the door | Cocktail attire please | Complimentary valet

Sponsorship opportunities begin at $500. Please contact Todd at todd@eqfl.org or 727-822-2122 for details.

Equality Florida is the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s LGBT community.

All net proceeds direc tly benefit Equalit y Flor ida I nstitute, a tax exempt 501c3 non-profit organization.

PO BOX 20786, TAMPA, FL 33622-0786

52

A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION FOR THE EQUALIT Y FLORIDA INSTITUTE MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE WITHIN FLORIDA (1.800.435.7352). REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. REGISTRATION #CH7992.

watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

overheard

tampa Bay Out+aBOut

prOud OF Our pride

t

he annual PriDe ParaDe anD festival is a sign of, pardon the pun, pride for any city looking to advertise how accepting and diverse they are, but let’s face it: All Prides are not created equal.

Next Magazine set out to explore the LGBT communities around the globe and find which Prides are worth traveling halfway around the world for. Next Magazine chose seven Pride destinations and only one in the good ole U.S.A. made the list: St. Pete Pride. The magazine calls it “a vibrant festival featuring art, music and performances of all kind.” They go on to say the highlights of St. Pete Pride include the “lively display that runs right through the heart of the gayborhood” that is Grand Central and gushes about the only parade on the list that starts at sunset. St. Pete Pride is forth on the list behind Tel Aviv, Israel; Sitges, Spain and Toronto, Canada.

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5

6

dinner with a Cause

a

restaurant, a grouP of frienDs anD a bottle of wine spells out a pretty good night. A great night would be if you could do that and help out your community. Well you can! Dine Out For Life is headed to the Tampa Bay area May 19. Just eat at one of the participating restaurants, and a varying percentage of your check (The Frog Pond in Redington Beach is donating 100 percent)is donated to ASAP. This is the first year that local hot-spot eatery Punky’s will be involved and your friendly neighborhood news.

People here at Watermark will be out there alongside them as your Punky’s Dine Out For Life welcoming crew. We can’t help it; we love that everything is purple! So make sure you make your way out to Punky’s, or any of the amazing places listed at DineOutForLIfe.com, and get to eating.

marChing Orders

W

here PeoPle Pee, more specifically where transgender people pee, has sparked protest and outcry across the country, but before it attracted national attention, this very issue was ruffling the feathers of folks in the Sarasota area. After a local magnet school allowed trans students to use the bathroom for the gender they identify, the Sarasota County School Board started having meetings and workshops, trying to decide whether they should back this policy.

After the concerns of the trans community seemingly fell on deaf ears, they took to the streets in protest May 1. Nearly 140 protesters assembled at Five Points Park and then marched down Main Street for the right to use the bathrooms that make them feel safe. Joining the protest was Harvey Milk Festival president Shannon Fortner and ALSO Youth program coordinator Molly Swift.

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1

with your Powers combineD: (L-R) Mike lupia, Steve Kornell, Mayor Rick Kriseman, Darden Rice, David Jolly, Ed Montanari and Dwight Dudley gather in Williams Park in St. Petersburg for Earth Day April 23. PHOTO

COuRTESy OF MIKE luPIA

2

hey mrs. carter: Bryan Bevins-Spitler (L) and Jeff Bevins-Spitler take in a concert from Beyonce at Raymond James stadium in Tampa April 30. PHOTO COuRTESy OF JEFF BEVInS-SPITlER

3

art In tHE HOUsE: MACAViTi (L) and Okie Tilo attend Pride & Passion at the Tampa Museum of Art April 24. Photo courtesy of Owen Hunt Digital Services & Consulting.

4

with arms wiDe oPen: Ty Maxey (L) and Warren Holding attend Open Arms Homeless Ministry at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa May 1. PHOTO

COuRTESy OF JEREMy WADE nEIMAn

5

Park rangers: (L-R) Marc Retzlaff, John Reumann and Chris lichfoldt take in a little theater in the park on LGBT night as American Stage presents Spamalot in St. Petersburg May 1. PHOTO COuRTESy

OF MARC RETZlAFF

6

this is half-o-ween: Jeff Beadle (F) joins (L-R) Eden Deck, Kori Stevens and Jaeda Fuentes for some ghoulish fun at the Half-O-Ween celebration at Quench Lounge in Largo April 30.

7

PHOTO COuRTESy OF ZACHARy AlAn

7

kiss me, i’m eQual: (L-R) Tammy Duffey, Mark Puskarich, linda Dorremocea, Hector Martinez, Jackie Deppner and Silka Rodriguez connect at EQFL’s Tampa Equality Connection at O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Brandon April 28. PHOTO COuRTESy OF MARK PuSKARICH

8

magic mikes: The mouthwatering crew of Southern Nights in Tampa gets ready for drink slingin’ and hip shakin’ April 30. PHOTO COuRTESy

OF DAnIEl J. AnTHOny

8 watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

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orlandofringe.org PRESENTING SPONSORS GRANT SPONSORS

54

watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

overheard

r

Brawl-Ball

ecently, there was a scuffle at the softball fielDs where some players lost their cool resulting in what’s been described as a brawl. According to witnesses, the physical altercation resulted in players of both teams clearing the benches to break up the physical altercation.

Despite the competitive nature of the game, most players are friends on and off the fields. When questioned about the incident, a rep for the CFSL referred us to its mission statement: “The Central Florida Softball League is dedicated to offering a safe social and competitive athletic environment for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered community, and their straight allies. The CFSL doesn’t feel this isolated incident is newsworthy and says that the situation will be handled internally. With that said, the CFSL also wanted to mention their efforts to establish philanthropic efforts geared to the sports oriented LGBT youth and their allies. We were told the news will break on May 15, so please stay tuned.

and i-eeee-i ... will always hate yOu

a

movement of recent antitransgenDer bills requiring people to use public restrooms that align with their birth identity has many transgender people nervous about using public facilities. The Orlando based Liberty Counsel’s president Anita Staver solidified why everyone should be nervous recently. With her loaded threat, Anita claimed that she’s taking a Glock .45 to the ladies room. She went on to explain that it identifies as her bodyguard. This statement was Tweeted as a direct response to Target’s April 19 statement that transgender employees and customers are invited to “use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity.” In a statement to Watermark, founder and chair of the anti-LGBT hate group and Anita’s husband Mat Staver said, “Women are not concerned about transsexuals committing violence. They are concerned about men using ‘gender identity’ as an excuse to stalk and sexually assault them” – We call bullshit, of course.

the rainBOw airwaves

P

OrlandO Out+aBOut

riDe raDio orlanDo is a subsiDiary of xl 106.7 and will launch within the next couple of weeks. The station will launch on 106.7-2, in HD and also be available on iHeartRadio. com and the iHearRadio app under PRIDE RADIO ORLANDO. Bedazzling beauty Blue Star recently announced that she will be the on-air host for the drive-time edition of the radio station from 6-10 a.m.

She tells us this has been in the works for a long time and has been kept under wraps until she was ready to announce it. An avid music lover, she’s always wanted to be on the radio, and this a dream come true for her. She went on to say, that she applauds XL 106.7 FM for venturing out into the Gay media. As we went to press, her show currently remains unnamed, but will launching this month

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1

history lesson: While on vacation in New York City April 23, Watermark sales director Danny Garcia and his mom, nidia Gamboa, stop by The Stonewall. PHOTO By AnTHOny FuSCO

2

bowleD over glbt: Community Center senior programs director Ken Terrell spreads the word about The Center’s programs. PHOTO COuRTESy TERREll

3

Princess Pit bull: Sarah Wissig, Deputy Finance Director with Susannah Randolph for Congress, snuggles a rescue pup at the Central Florida Earth Day event April 23.

4

5

PHOTO COuRTESy WISSIG

4

sniP sniP: Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan, with store manager Monica Bogstad, cuts the ribbon April 29 at the reopening of Ikea’s restaurant. PHOTO By EDDIE ROSADO

5

three little lambs: UCF students (L to R) Adam Manno, Asianna Elston, and Marina Salcedo stop by for at Watermark’s Third Thursday social at the Hammered Lamb April 21.

PHOTO By MAnnO

6

orlanDo PriDe: (L to R) Orlando Roller Derby skaters Bekhi Falter, Morgan Filteau, Heather Kinkade and Missy Corson get on their game faces before taking on the Savannah Derby Devils. PHOTO COuRTESy ORlAnDO ROllER DERBy

7

uniteD gaytions: Watermark’s Tom Dyer, Rick Claggett and Billy Manes welcome Polish visitors Agata Chaber, Magdalena Kurus and Krzysztof Smiszek (plus interpreter Mikolaj Korziskta), who stopped by the office as part of a tour arranged by the World Affairs Council of Central Florida. PHOTO COuRTESy

6

WATERMARK

8

eye know: Cheryl Grieb (right), Vice Chairwoman of the Osceola County Commission, spreads the word about eye health with Amparo Molina at Hart Memorial Central Library for Eye Wellness Clinic Day April 29. PHOTO COuRTESy GRIEB

8 7

watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

55

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May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

-Est. 200

announcements

wedding Bells

Blair Jackson, 48, and susan Jackson, 60 from Orlando, Florida

years togetHer: 6 years

engagement date:

September 3, 2012

wedding date:

October 10, 2015

wedding venue:

i.W. Phillips House

wedding planner:

The couple planned their wedding.

wedding caterer:

Puff ‘n Stuff Catering

wedding colors:

They both wore ivory. All parties in the wedding wore black. if you were on Blair’s side, you wore an orange tie. Susan’s side wore red.

Those are their favorite colors.

First song:

“i Choose You” by Sara Bareilles

interesting Fact:

Susan went to edgewater High School, and Blair went to Boone High School; the two schools are arch rivals.

“w

hen we met again

and had a longer conversation, it was obvious we had a lot more in common, and there was definitely something more there,” Susan says.

Blair Jackson, who is a systems administrator, and Susan Jackson, a network clinical director at Florida Hospital, met through mutual friends. They used to get together and play Texas Hold ‘Em poker. Blair was in and out of another relationship when the women first met, but they eventually hit it off and there were sparks when Blair was finally single.

“We had mutual interests – our love of sports, our love of family – it was just a lot of things in common, and we just knew we didn’t want to waste time being apart,” she says.

The two women eventually started hanging out more and

grew to love each other, and it was only just after the two years since they started dating that Susan popped the big question.

Susan asked Blair to marry her while they were at their beach house in New Smyrna. She had a very nice bottle of champagne and eventually got down on her knee and asked Blair to marry her. The two still joke about how Blair’s initial response was, “Are you serious?” At the time, same-sex marriage wasn’t legal in Florida.

But of course, she said yes.

“This is something that used to be secret, and then it was sort of something you could whisper about,” Susan recalls.

“Now it’s accepted, and we’re

getting married.”

When they were engaged, it was still not legal in many places for same-sex couples to get married. They decided while planning the wedding to wait a bit when they heard that it was possibly going to become legal in Florida. They waited until 2015 so they could get married in Orlando, where they are both from.

Blair says they didn’t really start planning the wedding until same-sex marriage became legal in January 2015 in Florida.

Both women say that their wedding day was beautiful and unforgettable, and Susan jokes when asked about her favorite part by saying, “when the wedding was over.”

“It wasn’t so much that I was nervous,” Susan says. “It’s just that you want things to go so smoothly, and you don’t want to worry about it. I guess I was a little nervous and a little more worried that something wouldn’t go right.”

All in all, Susan says her wedding day was a joyous occasion, and the best part of it was everyone dancing around and having a great time with their friends and family.

The couple got married on the day of Orlando Pride 2015, which both said was beautiful. Blair says that when her best man was giving the toast, the fireworks started to go off at Lake Eola, which made it even more magical.

“My favorite part was standing up there, it was a beautiful setting, and looking out and seeing all our friends and family and how excited everyone was for us,” Blair says.

They went to New York for their honeymoon, and they saw Hamilton, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Something Rotten! on Broadway.

“If she’s your friend, she’s your friend forever,” Blair says of Susan.

“If she loves you, she loves you for life.”

anniversaries

Orlando’s Framing of Central Florida celebrates 23 years of business this May. Orlando’s The Center celebrated one year of serving seniors under its amazing OWl program on April 28.

awards

Orlando writer Sabrina napolitano is one of four winners of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Intro Journals Project fiction award. Her winning story, “Cobra,” will be published by Quarterly West June 2016.

local birtHdays

Central Florida congressional hopeful Susannah Randolph (May 5); Bradenton resident and Trinity Charities Program Coordinator Bruce Fournier, Wet Nurse drummer Vanessa Brewster (May 7); DJ extraordinaire Scott Robert (May 9); St. Petersburg gender therapist and trans hero Tristan Byrnes, Woodstock at Full Moon owner Darryl Sheppard, former USF executive administrative assistant Eric Andersson, former Tampa Bay Bear John Burchett (May 10); Tampa softball player and massage therapist Alexis Acevedo, Pasco County Democratic Chairwoman, techy and straight ally Alison Berke Morano, Tampa political hob-nobber Scott J. Allen, former-Tampa-but-now-inFort-Lauderdale personal trainer Jeff Giles (May 11); Lutz real estate agent Kenny Braverman (May 12); Pulse Orlando legend Cindy Barbalock, Tampa Bay super volunteer Jeremy Wade neiman, Sarasota personal trainer, coach and medical specialist Dr. Sporty Damon Paul Harper (May 13); Suncoast Softball League player and school teacher Bob Tencza, Largo media publisher Jeff youngblood, roller derby secret weapon Vanessa Cattau (May 14); Hillsborough Kids advocate Malachi Ortiz, stylist and Q Salon owner Sameer nurani, straight ally and Friday night host Alex Copeland (May 15); St. Pete ROTC leader Frank Hay, adorable Tampa cub and artist Ric Moreir, Bradenton-based Suncoast AIDS Theatre Project honcho Garry Breul (May 16); Orlando muscle bear and trainer Migael Schieder, Sarasota photographer and artist Ming “Troy” Ming, Watermark First Lady Tony Mauss (May 17); Gypsy Productions founder Trevor Keller, Phish Phest phenom and phab photographer Julie Milford (May 18)

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.

watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

57

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accountant

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attorney

chiropractor DR. JARED SILBERSTEIN Chiropractic Physician

SOUTH PARK

CHIROPRACTIC South Park Chiropractic Welcomes Dr. Michelle Medina to our office!

Please come meet her.

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8865 Commodity Circle Suite 3 Orlando, FL 32819 407-354-0009 Fax: 407-354-4882

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watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

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watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

59

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May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

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watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

61

uprisings

wise up “He’s about to go from commander-in-chief to couch commander.”

—nbc’s chuck toDD says in a white house corresPonDent’s Dinner skit over the weekenD.

I

“Fuck you, Chuck Todd.

What am I going to do in D.C. for two years?”

—PresiDent barack obama resPonDs.

BrOwn nOte

O

ne balD guy to another, Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown handed Republican Gov. Rick Scott the smackdown of the (climatechange) century last week when he drafted a note about Florida’s Scott-induced failures.

“If you’re truly serious about Florida’s economic wellbeing, it’s time to stop the silly political stunts and start doing something about climate change – two words you won’t even let state officials say. The threat is real and so too will be the devastating impacts,” Brown wrote Scott on May 2, just as Scott was on an adventure to wrestle California businesses into Florida’s implicit, drowning failure.

Scott’s a poacher by nature, not ‘cuz he hates ya.

Brown banged the drum about the fact – yes, fact – that Florida stands to lose much of its expensive and expansive coastline should the state not take action. There are reports, Brown wrote. You should read them, he implied.

62

jOlly gOOd time

t

hings got heavy within the rePublican Party structure last month when a 60 Minutes report, one that included some clandestine videography, showed that the National Republican Congressional Committee was enforcing fundraising quotas for candidates seeking office.

Things only got uglier when Jolly confirmed that he was being forced to raise $18,000 daily should he want to be taken seriously. The NRCC did not take it lightly.

“Simply put, this meeting never happened,” Simms writes. “It is a work of fiction.

Except, what more proof do you need than video? Was the video doctored? Were there pimps and hookers? Nope. It’s real.

“In response to the NRCC’s broadside to the credibility of Rep. David Jolly, and in response to the Executive Director’s bold assertion that a meeting with party leadership directing Rep. Jolly to raise $18,000 per day did not occur, we can confirm the date was April 3, 2014, the time was 5:30 p.m., the location was the NRCC’s Political Conference Room on the Second Floor,” Jolly’s communications director, Preston Rudie, said in a statement to POLITICO.

W

iCarly

hat to Do about PresiDential bleeP of noise calleD teD cruZ? Last week, the gay-hating, gun-toting, partyproclaimed “Lucifer” jumped his own self-righteous, bigoted gun and announced that he would ask failed Republican presidential hopeful – and Hewlett-Packard devil who wears Prada (and sings for no reason!) – Carly Fiorina to the electoral prom. Of course she agreed.

Why wouldn’t she? WHAT ELSE IS SHE GOING TO DO? “I’m impressed with her,” other failure Jeb Bush told CNN. “Picking a candidate that is talented, tough – she takes on Trump really well, I think, and she takes on Hillary Clinton very well, as well. (She’s) someone who’s got a proven record, who’s been vetted by a candidate, I thought it was a smart move.”

So was Sarah Palin; pew, pew. At any rate, Fiorina is most noted in the last week for falling off the stage at a Cruz event. Cruz didn’t help her; the internet noticed. She fell off a stage. Cruz dropped out. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Laugh-In.

watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

Billy Manes

f you’re anywhere near the interweb tubes, shaking your head with gifs and emojis, stamping your imaginary feet at how things could have possibly gone the way that they indeed have, then apologies on the front end for the unicorns and rainbows presently being dismissed by your mainstream media (or men seeking men, acronym fans).

It’s been a hot week of political rhetoric, which effectively means it’s been a hot-air balloon filled with erroneous phraseology and a tantrum or two thrown in for good measure.

The battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the diamond-studded figurehead of the presidency has gone ballistic, and we’re all paying for it in progressive circles.

At issue: the bewitching math of superdelegates and those who love or hate them. Sure, nobody likes a finger on a scale, but that’s not what this is (there is a history behind said system, one that is available to read at your local library or, of course, online).

Superdelegates are the politically connected folk who make up the whipped creamy top of the Democratic Party structure, and there’s a reason for that. Whether you agree with that reason – to make sure that smart decisions are made, proponents argue; to satisfy the bloodthirst of the party elite, opponents grumble – doesn’t matter right now.

“Those superdelegates in states where either Secretary Clinton or myself has won a landslide victory — those superdelegates ought to seriously reflect on whether they should cast their superdelegate vote in line with the wishes of the people of their states,” Sanders said in a recent speech.

Down with the superdelegates! They’re like shoppers waiting for the better deal?

Not really. That put-on political purity hasn’t stopped Sanders’ team from raising the idea of courting those superdelegates against their pledged-delegate brethren. Over the weekend, Sanders himself confirmed that he would likely ride along in the broken bus that his advisors have taped together, one that would sway an insurmountable number of superdelegates to His New Democracy.

“When we talk about a rigged system, it’s also important to understand how the Democratic Convention works,” Sanders said May 2 at a press conference. “We have won, at this point, 45 percent of pledged delegates, but we have only earned 7 percent of superdelegates.” Clinton has won more than 3 million more popular votes, mind, but never mind the bullocks.

You can’t have it both ways.

Sanders knew full well that he would come up against electoral challenges (don’t wait), but now he’s stomping his feet and trying to destroy the party. It’s working, too! Except it isn’t.

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watermark Your LGBT life.

May 5 - M ay 18 , 2016 // Issue 2 3.0 9

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