Watermark Issue 24.12: St. Pete Pride

Macy’s Celebrates Family + Friends + Love + Life + Equality + Respect at

MACY’S TYRONE SQUARE MEN’S DEPARTMENT, 1ST FLOOR SATURDAY, JUNE 24TH AT 12PM Join Macy’s and St. Pete Pride and Come Out to Brunch! Catch a fashion presentation and a live performance by our fabulous surprise guest host, as you enjoy brunch-style lite bites, live music, and clothing customization services* just in time for the parade! Plus, make a donation of $10 or more to St. Pete Pride and score a $10 Macy’s Gift Card!** Join us in our continued support of The Trevor Project!

The Trevor Project provides life-saving crisis intervention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.

FOR MORE DETAILS VISIT

macys.com/events

Events subject to change or cancellation. *While supplies last, and time permits. **Only valid Saturday, June 24th at Macy’s Tyrone Square.

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

departments 6 // mail

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7 // editOrs desk 8 // OrlandO news 10 // tampa bay news

I always heard from other organizers of Pride events that they look at st. Pete Pride as kind of a new model to where you didn’t have to spend all this money on entertainment to make a Pride event happen. It was more about community.

— st. pete pRiDe cO-FOuNDeR bRiAN LONgstReth ON whAt thAt FiRst yeAR meANt tO him.

13 // state news 17 // natiOn & wOrld news 25 // talkinG pOints 43 // COmmunity Calendar 45 // tampa bay Out+abOut 47 // OrlandO Out+abOut 48 // tampa bay marketplaCe 49 // weddinG bells/ annOunCements 50 // OrlandO marketplaCe

On the COVer

PAGE where tO GO: St. Petersburg will have Pride all

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PAGE CRYSTAL

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ANNIVERSARY:

St. Pete Pride celebrates 15 years of parades, festivals and LGBTQ Pride in the ‘Burg.

sCan qr COde fOr

watermarkOnline.COm

over the place, with events in downtown, near St. Pete Beach, in Grand Central District and more. Check our schedule to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

watermark i ssue 24 .12 // J une 15 - J une 28, 2017

wet hOt Gay summer

Crist COmes tO metrO mOVin’ On up

lOndOn CallinG

PAGE Orlando’s big gay weekend succeeds despite the weather and a year of mourning.

PAGE U.S. Congressman and former Florida governor Charlie Crist tours Metro expansion.

PAGE

read it online!

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

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Gay State Representative David Richardson plots historic run for Congress.

37

British pop singer Alison Moyet is going out on tour with her new album Other.

give us a follow on twitter and instagram at @watermarkonline and be sure to like us on facebook. watermark Your LGBTQ life.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

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watermarkOnline.COm on looking back at pulse’s beginnings:

“What a beautifully crafted story of history, grief, future and hope. Kudos to all involved.”

—MARGOT HALIDAY KNIGHT

“For in that moment, most our nation became part of Orlando.”

—TODD KACHINSKI KOTTMEIER

watermark’s faCebOOk: Your Central Florida Ford Headquarters

on ben carson defending hiv housing cuts:

“This man is a menace to society, especially those that are on the margins. What a piece of work!”

—FRANCIS FERGUSON

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“BC he is an idiot, no doubt. But I agree with him on this. As someone who worked in the field of AIDS housing for about 20 years, it is a program that creates dependency and does nothing to improve the lives of the people in it.

HOPWA, like the Ryan White Care Act - which funds most medical services for low-income persons with HIV - was designed as an emergency program. But it is used as permanent housing subsidy program. On my last national HOPWA conference call about six years ago, I suggested that with antiviral

therapies working so well, this program needed to be eliminated. Silence. I said that if HUD would like to provide medically related housing, great, but do not limit it to HIV. It furthers the stigma attached to HIV, and there are people with other medical issues that are far most costly and difficult to deal with.

Silence. As someone who marched and protested for services in the early days of AIDS, we were fighting for a dignified place to die.

Since 1998, that need has dissipated. Medically needy housing, I fully support.

Housing for only low-income persons with HIV, no. I don’t want to bring on a whole slew of comments. I was diagnosed HIV+ in the 80s, I got HOPWA assistance in 1994 for two months, while pending disability, as a bridge. That’s what it was designed for. Not permanent housing. Expand Section 8 housing for medically needy, low-income persons, whether that be HIV or cancer.”

—KEITH THERIOT

on germanY starting to issue humanitarian visas to chechen gaYs:

“This is good news if the trend is real. France is too and extending invitations to U.S. scientists. Maybe American gays will have a European option if the fanatical right-wing Christians get their way.”

—JAMES FERGUSON

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

on a juror contempt prompting a mistrial in north carolina church-abuse case:

“Wow. As if this guy hasn’t been through enough. I hope he knows his community stands beside him.”

—KEVIN WOOD

on mcdonald’s celebrating d.c. pride with rainbow frY boxes:

“Rainbow boxes are a nice gesture, but they need to create gender neutral bathrooms and raise the wage.”

—IDA VISHKAEE ESKAMANI

on ivanka trump’s tweets calling for a “joYful” lgbtq pride month:

“You need to pick a side, or tell your father to fire all his homophobe administration and hire a new one.”

—MAXIMO VLADIMIR SANCHEZ

“Sorry girl. Thanks for trying.”

—MILLY BOU MIRANDA

watermark’s twitter:

on Watermark’s coverage of the pulse tragedY over the past Year:

“No one covered this national horror with the sensitivity and insight that Watermark brought to the challenge. Thank you, @WatermarkOnline. #ForThe49.”

—@TMSIMMONS

editor’s

billy manes editor

BIlly@WatermarkOnline.com

“S

desk

hAme! shAme! shAme!”

So went the missive in unison as thousands marched by the White House on Sunday morning, many having traveled from all over the nation and the world to participate in the Equality March for Unity and Pride.

It was an effective palate cleanser, some might say, from the more corporate, more typical Capital Pride parade just the day before, though, through the looking glass, it was two sides of the same coined message.

For a long time, the LGBTQ community has been battling against the fissure of progressive notions and corporate sponsorship; for a long time, we’ve been studying how to work within the system to better the greater good. But on this particular weekend in 2017, the cracks in the pavement became more obvious to the casual viewer.

At Saturday’s Capital Pride, a “disruption,” as the Washington Post reported, forced a pause in the parade and ended with a rerouting of the celebration. The group No Justice

watermark staff

No Pride was on hand to stand ground and block participants from moving forward, namely because the group was protesting the fact that gay rights had become everyone’s rights, at least in the sense that any corporation or military-industrial complex signee could adopt a rainbow flag and blend in with the otherness of other.

“We anticipated this. We knew there would be counterprotests,” D.C. police chief Peter Newsham told the Washington Post. “We had planned for an alternative route, and that’s what we used.”

“Shame! Shame! Shame!” the counterprotesters shouted at those engaged in the parade. “Shame!

Shame! Shame!” the parade-goers shouted back.

But isn’t inclusiveness what the queer community has been after for so long amid a flurry of legislation and tragedy? Didn’t the timing at least clue some people in to what was appropriate and what wasn’t?

This was June 10, the weekend memorializing the one-year mark of Orlando’s tragedy, and a rift from within the LGBTQ world wasn’t exactly what the doctor ordered.

Sure, we can all stand on sanctimony when it comes to corporatization and “rich gay white men” and the devil that brought them, but shouldn’t there have been a better way to express that frustration in advance of one of the most popular Pride celebrations in the world?

On the following day, at the Equality March, there were no floats and no corporate logos and the movement seemed far more comfortable with itself. The issues were clear – Pulse signs were everywhere as were placarded indications of political engagement from the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union – and the solemn walk, one reflecting back to that of 1993, carried on without obstruction.

But this is a battle the entire LGBTQ community is dealing with as it celebrates Pride month in June and National Coming Out Day later this fall. We stand on the shoulders of giants, specifically those who joined the ranks of ACT UP and other protest groups as the AIDS scourge wrapped our nation – our world – in a cloak of doubt. We admire their tenacity, even their disruptions at federal buildings that must have been similarly frowned upon in a different time. We get it. Under the current administration, carte blanche is likely to be handed to any company or industry that does the president’s bidding. The man could hardly even address Pride month on his own – his daughter was programmed for that – and any cries of “shame” in his direction are completely admissible. It’s just the throwing-stones-toward-yourown part that was disturbing in D.C.

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Still, it was a testament to the importance of Pride parades, and that’s what we’re celebrating in this issue featuring St. Pete Pride.

Whether we have differences – and there are with St. Pete Pride and those surrounding it, so much that it’s bifurcating – or whether we’re marching in lockstep, it’s all for the same mission: equality. If we get too lost in the things that separate us, we’ll forget what we do to make change, make life better for everyone.

Coming home from D.C. to the memorials for Pulse was jarring in its own way, to be honest. I dreaded the tears that I knew would come when I stepped off that airplane. But I also knew that, at least now, at least in

I watched people cry as they lit candles at Pulse, watched a drag queen story time at the library, saw some beautiful artwork and listened as our local leaders spoke words into action. I hope this becomes the norm, if there is such a thing.

Orlando, we realize how fragile our dynamic actually is, how important community is in carrying us through.

On Monday night, I watched people cry as they lit candles at Pulse, watched a drag queen story time at the library, saw some beautiful artwork and listened as our local leaders spoke words into action. I hope this becomes the norm, if there is such a thing.

If we don’t take care of each other – even as corporate employees under banners we do not like – that would be a shame.

OrlandO OffiCe 414 N. Ferncreek Ave. Orlando, FL 32803 TEL: 407-481-2243 FAX: 407-481-2246

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

COntributOrs sAmueL JOhNsON

is a reporter for non-commercial radio station WMNF-88.5 in Tampa who focuses on social issues. He resides in St. Petersburg. Page 10

gReg stemm

lives in Gulfport, Fla., and has worked as a freelance writer for several local publications. He is a founding member of St. Pete Pride and active politically in Tampa Bay. Page 21

DR. steve yAcOveLLi

is Owner & Principal of TopDog Learning Group, LLC, a learning and development consulting firm based in Orlando that provides guidance and solutions in diversity and inclusion. Page 23

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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7

central florida news

Orlando Gay Chorus launches Voices United!

Orlando youth camp Billy Manes

O

RLANDO | For one week, everyone was a star, or at least a star in the making.

In an unexpected move, the Orlando Gay Chorus— with help from a grant from Disney—launched a chorus camp called Voices United! Orlando, a choir camp intended to raise voices to their perfect pitch, all while having fun.

From June 5-9, 22 kids of middle-school age came together for a week of bass and treble, alto and soprano, all leading to a final performance that Friday.

It wasn’t an easy start, OGC Artistic Director James Bode says. For one, summer camps are an industry unto themselves.

Though the group expected that marketing should start after spring break, it quickly learned that most summer camps are booked earlier in the year, if not the year before.

“The board said we’d like to do some kind of chorus camp,” Bode recalls. “I was like, ‘You have no idea how hard this is going to be.’”

It wasn’t terribly hard, though. Though Bode, a chorus teacher himself, said there was some blowback from the community of chorus teachers with whom he communicated. They wanted the Orlando Gay Chorus logo removed from the promotional materials in fear that it would scare off parents. Did he relent?

“No,” he says. “We were not going to take OGC’s name off the poster. I knew that the ‘gay’ on the poster would turn some parents away. So when I reached out to some chorus teachers, parents were like ‘we don’t want to do something with a gay chorus.’”

He says the name remains the same, as do the literature and the liability forms parents must sign: This is an Orlando Gay Chorus function. But it’s also serving a larger purpose, as evidenced by the Disney grant and the generous donation of a website from Full Sail University. Because of the grant, 15 of the 22 enrollees were able to attend the camp for free.

But even at $125 for the full week—lunches included—the soon-to-be-annual event isn’t cost prohibitive.

The camp’s goals are buffeted by the involvement of two voice coaches and one All-State Chorus vocal representative.

The camp convened from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. throughout the week at First United Church of Christ on Curry Ford Road, and, according to its website, students were put through numerous workshops, from upper/lower sectionals to “music jeopardy.” There were also camp-regulars like sack races and eggs on spoons.

“They really spent all the money on the kids,” said Kathleen Voss Woolrich, whose 12-year-old daughter attended. “They got amazing sheet music. She’s never thirsty; she’s never hungry. People are very generous. I can’t imagine not having done this.”

But it’s not all serious faces and auditions and callbacks.

It’s about celebrating unknown talent and singing the summer away.

“These kids are crazy,” Bode says. “They are so loud. But they sing so well already.”

For more information, go to voicesunitedorlando.com.

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love was in the air:

Gay Day at Magic Kingdom.

Photo by Brian Becnel

Wet Hot Gay Summer!

Orlando’s big gay weekend succeeds despite the weather and a year of mourning Billy Manes

O

RLANDO | It was the best of times, it was the wettest of times.

Whether it was a pool party or a thunderstorm, the underlying theme beneath the gray skies of Orlando’s resort area in its big gay weekend occupying June’s first week was one of water falling, often with thunder and lightning included.

For 27 years, GayDayS Inc., One Magical Weekend and Girls in Wonderland have been tourism drivers for the area, growing from simple notions of red shirts at theme parks all the way to huge circuit parties and even bigger profits. In economic development parlance, the annual June event brings hundreds of millions of dollars to the region.

“This year has been a really interesting year, granted we were one year out from Pulse tragedy,” says GayDayS director of entertainment Steve Erics. “It definitely set a different tone for the attractions and different events.”

However, he says, celebrants remained undeterred. There were

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

400 rooms reserved at the official host hotel The Doubletree by Hilton by first-time visitors, he says. In the wake of the Pulse nightmare, “A lot of them wanted to find new ways to celebrate.”

While official numbers have yet to materialize so soon after the event, Erics says that Disney reported that it was at “phase one” by 11:30 a.m. Saturday, meaning it was nearing capacity. Universal Orlando likewise reported that it was experiencing “larger numbers than expected,” he says.

And though the poor weather blanketed a large portion of the weekend, the main event carried on through the circumstances. It changed, as they say, for the good.

“Since Pulse, there’s just been a lot of love,” Erics says. “No matter who you are,.”

One Magical Weekend events coordinator Tom Christ concurs.

That event, which is separate from the GayDayS brand, centered its events on the B Resort and Spa and House of Blues.

“We were up from last year for sure with Typhoon lagoon,” he says.

“The venue at Hollywood Studios was a little smaller Friday. Disney told me that their numbers were up

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

more than the system was telling us. We were very pleased with the attendance all weekend long. It was unbelievable, and then suddenly the Wednesday before we start, it starts raining.”

Just in case, the planners, minus microphones, made the decision to keep the party going indoors back at the B Resort and Spa at Disney Springs.

As for next year, spirits remain high for One Magical Weekend, he says.

“Absolutely full-speed ahead. I think next year, we can expect an increase in attendance,” he says.

“If you look at the audience, it’s a shifting audience. Everyone thinks we’re the circuit hotel, the drug hotel. That’s just not true anymore.”

Yesi Leon, co-owner of the lesbian-themed Girls in Wonderland extravaganza shares in the feeling of optimism amid the clouds and darkness.

“I thought it went really well.

People showed up,” she says, referring to the 6,000 women she estimates attended events. “People did ask more about security this year. More people volunteered to make sure people were secure.”

Next year, the GayDayS brand hopes to expand on its annual Miss GayDayS pageant and this year’s inaugural Mr. GayDaySLeather competition, all under the overarching theme of Mardi Gras.

“We’re always going to continue looking at new ways to build,” Erics says. “We want to be a little more over the top and a little more flamboyant!”

PRIDE has taken great strides.

We’re here to help you take your next step.

At Regions, we’re all about advising and supporting you in things that really matter.

Let us help you achieve what you want today and be prepared for the future.

Insights by Regions has relevant tips, tools and articles to assist you with an everchanging financial landscape. Ready to take your next step? We’re here to help.

Drop by a branch or visit regions.com/LGBT to learn more.

REGIONS CELEBRATES LGBT PRIDE MONTH © 2017 Regions Bank. Regions and the Regions logo are registered trademarks of Regions Bank.

The LifeGreen color is a trademark of Regions Bank.

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

9

tampa bay news

st. petersburG Gay blaCk pride Gets its GrOOVe baCk samuel Johnson

CRIST VISIT:

S

t peteRsbuRg | After a six-year hiatus, Gay Black Pride is out and proud this year in Saint Petersburg. Its epicenter is the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African-American Museum located in the city’s historic African-America neighborhood, The Deuces. Throughout the month of June, the museum will be celebrating Gay Black Pride with a series of events. The centerpiece of the celebrations is the exhibit, “As Black as They were Gay: The Harlem Renaissance.”

Dr. Carter G. Woodson African-American Museum is the only museum in St. Petersburg which isn’t downtown or near the waterfront. It’s nestled next to Jordan Park, a public housing community. This year the Woodson Museum is making a splash on the Gay Black Pride front. On Monday, June 12, there will be a candlelight vigil starting at 7:30 p.m. to commemorate the victims of the Pulse tragedy. At the end of the week, on Friday, June 16, starting at 7:30pm, the museum will be putting on a screening of the Oscar winning film Moonlight. Nearing the end of Pride month, Tuesday, June 20, the museum will host an LGBTQ panel discussion entitled, “Not a Trend: The Truth.”

The anchor of Gay Black Pride is the exhibit “As Black as They Were Gay: The Harlem Renaissance,” which consists of a series of wall displays commemorating the LGBT icons of the Harlem Renaissance. This was period of time in the early 20th Century in New York City’s Harlem when African-American art and culture flourished. Some of the notable luminaries given center stage in the exhibit are authors Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes, as well as performers like Billy Holiday and Josephine Baker.

Terri Lipsey Scott, director of the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African-American Museum, says when the same exhibit was shown six years ago, it got a tepid reception. But now, she says, “As a community, as a nation, we have evolved with a greater sense of acceptance, and now it is an ideal time to bring this exhibit back.” The impetus for the exhibit, according to Lipsey Scott, is that so many of the revered historical figures in African-American culture are gay.

She went on to say that, “So many folks didn’t realize the contributions they made, and it was critical that we brought that to the forefront.”

Not only is Gay Black Pride at the Woodson Museum seeing the reemergence of the exhibit “As Black as they were Gay: The Harlem Renaissance,” but it is also bringing back the Pride to local Black LGBTQ pillars of the community, Lipsey-Scott explains. The six honorees are Bob Devin Jones (author and director of the cultural center Studio 620), Sheree Greer (author who teaches St. Petersburg College), Trevor Pettiford (Emmy Award winning broadcast journalist at Bay News 9), Nadine Smith (LGBT activist, CEO and co-founder of Equality Florida), Desmond Clark (military veteran and former Director of Operations & Digital Media at Morean Arts Center) and Lillian Dunlap (journalist, communications professor who is currently with the Poynter Institute for Media Studies).

As St. Pete Pride gears up for another epic weekend of celebration, Gay Black Pride get its groove back.

10

U.S. Rep. charlie crist walked through Metro Wellness in St. Petersburg, currently under renovations, and met with members of the staff.

Photo by SaMuel JohnSon

Crist comes to Metro The U.S. Congressman and former Florida governor eyes expansion, promises political strength samuel Johnson

S

t. peteRsbuRg | Charlie Crist came back to his Tampa Bay roost May 30 to survey one of the area’s biggest LGBTQ success stories and to tackle an uncertain healthcare climate.

Crist, U.S. Representative for Florida’s 13th Congressional District, was given a tour of Metro Health and Wellness’ flagship facility in the city.

After all, the 13th district includes a large swath of St. Petersburg where the facility resides. Metro Health and Wellness is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a $5.2 million dollar expansion and renovation. This bay area success is a one-stop location in Tampa Bay for primary care, HIV prevention and treatment, behavioral care, therapy and much more.

The former governor’s visit comes at a time when healthcare is up in the air in both federal and state legislative offices.

Upon Crist’s arrival, the enthusiasm was evident, not only among the Metro employees giving the tour, but also with Crist – or Charlie, as he insists on being called by all those he meets in the halls and office nooks. This enthusiasm

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

for providing care to the LGBTQ community has been going strong since its inception in the early ‘90s.

Metro grew out of a church outreach to lend palliative care to those dying of HIV/AIDS. Naturally, there are other organizations and non-profits offering overlapping services with Metro, but there aren’t any that provide the totality that Metro does, Director of LGBTQ Community Center Services James Keane says. The hub and beating heart of the non-profit organization in St. Petersburg is just a stone’s throw from the old Georgie’s Alibi. It’s been at this location for about six years. Within the entire company there are roughly 140 employees, of which nearly 100 work at this location.

Priya Rajkumar, chief operating officer and chief program officer, says the renovation will increase the number of patient treatment capacity twofold. About two years ago Metro Health and Wellness began providing LGBTQ-focused primary care. It now serves about 2,000 primary care patients. Throughout the counties of Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough, the organization estimates nearly 6,000 people received some form of healthcare last year.

An undercurrent of concern

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

intermittently arose throughout the Crist tour of the current and new facility: What will the United States, and more specifically the LGBTQ community, get in return if the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is repealed?

LGBTQ Seniors will be impacted severely if the current GOP-tweaked healthcare reform bill (American Health Care Act) is passed. Crist sees the young seniors (50-64, as he deems them) to be thrown into a disproportionate financial squeeze.

He says insurance companies would be allowed to charge this group up to five times as much as younger people for coverage. To Crist that disparity is “unconscionable and cruel,” and the impact on seniors would be “dramatic and draconian.” It is a “horrible piece of legislation,” he went on to add.

(The Kaiser Family Foundation found that only eight percent of Americans support the new plan).

Crist finished his tour in one of the facility’s conference halls and then was shown the blueprints for the expansion and renovation.

He also had a look at the larger ongoing redevelopment plans for the surrounding area. The funding is in place and the work underway for completion around July 2018. But with an uncertain future of affordable healthcare looming, the services at Metro Health and Wellness still must keep going forward.

Keane views the takeaway from having a congressman visit the facility can only be a positive. He says that it is a “real shot in the arm” having someone with “direct access to Washington,” who is “actually listening to the needs and concerns of this agency as a direct service provider.”

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state news

Gay state representatiVe daVid riChardsOn plOts histOriC run fOr COnGress Billy Manes

A

fter becoming Florida’s first LGBTQ politician elected to statewide office, State Rep. David Richardson – who is known as a stickler for details and a champion of civil rights – has entered the national ring, publicly announcing that he intends to go after the Congressional District 27 seat that is soon to be vacated

by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who unexpectedly revealed that she would be vacating the position before she was projected to bow out in 2020. The Miami-based seat she will likely vacate is an important one, as Richardson’s current district is virtually enclosed within Ros-Lehtinen’s congressional district.

“Whoever goes there and has a seat is going to have to work in a bipartisan way, which is something I’ve done in Tallahassee,” Richardson says on the phone from

a special session in Tallahassee. “I think healthcare will continue to be an issue. Immigration will be a very big issue in South Florida. And criminal justice reform will be key.”

“I’ve been looking at the seat for a couple of years,” he adds. “All of my state representative seat sits in the congressional district.

I had decided that I wasn’t going to run against [Ros-Lehtinen]. I really thought that she would have retired in 2020. I would be termed out in 2020.”

Richardson joins a cavalry of hopefuls that includes state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez and Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, among others.

Republicans have also dipped their feet in the water for the District 27 race with Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Raquel Regaldo and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro leading a crowding field.

“After much research and consideration, I feel like there’s a

viable path for myself,” Richardson says. “I don’t think the environment and atmosphere in D.C. will be much different than it is here in Tallahassee. That environment is not new to me. I’ve been able to run this here. I think as time passes, I’ll be formulating and developing a much broader platform.”

The news broke in an exclusive chat with the Miami Herald on June 6.

“Yesterday, I wasn’t really planning on expressing where I am,” Richardson says. “A few weeks ago, I met with [former Democratic challenger and Miami businessman] Scott Fuhrman,” who was the first Democrat to announce.

“We had a really nice chat,” Richardson says. “He said, ‘I could see a situation where if you run, I wouldn’t run.’ He told me if I decide to run, he would withdraw. He told me then that he was going to drop out and support me. Yesterday, a reporter said he was suspending his campaign.”

Richardson promises to carry on his public service in the manner to which people have become accustomed: as a seasoned watchdog with an eye toward bipartisan action. In his previous career, Richardson spent 30 years as a forensic auditor, unearthing inconsistencies in both the corporate and the public worlds.

He’s best known, the Herald reports, for his efforts to control gangs within the corrections system while at the same time monitoring the abusive behaviors of officers. He’s an expert on prison culture.

He’s also even-handed, he says.

When Gov. Rick Scott was searching for a means to address last year’s Pulse massacre, Richardson was a vital bridge between the LGBTQ community and the conservative governor’s office.

Currently, Richardson is working toward moving forward with the medical marijuana law that has commanded a special session to figure out its enactment. His

positions, he says, are evolving.

He’s working on what is in front of him at the moment, namely dealing with an unhappy state senate and hospital industry that “wasn’t invited” to the backroom dealings of last week, he says. But that won’t deter him from pursuing a seat at the federal table. The Herald reports that he’s already intent on inspecting the federal corrections system in the same way he has blown whistles on Florida’s private and public prison conundrum, where he’s unveiled injustices between officers and inmates as well as general lapses in physical upkeep of the institutions.

He’s not running on ideals, but on realities, he says.

“I’m not going to be a gay legislator, I’m just a legislator that happens to be gay,” he says. “Maybe that’s what happens when you get older. I can look back on 30 years and see where I’m most useful. The biggest compliment I’ve had is that I’m highly qualified.”

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

nation+world news

Equality March draws thousands from across country Lou Chibbaro Jr. of The Washington Blade courtesy of the National Gay Media Association

W

ASHINGTON | Carrying rainbow flags and signs reading “Love, not hate, makes America great” and “Resist Trump,” tens of thousands of LGBTQ people and their supporters marched from the White House to the National Mall near the U.S. Capitol June 11 in the Equality March for Unity and Pride.

Through dozens of signs held by marchers saying “Remember Pulse” and in speeches at a rally on the Mall, march participants noted the event took place one day before the first anniversary of the shooting rampage at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., that took the lives of 49 mostly LGBTQ people.

Three survivors of the Pulse massacre, which has become known as the nation’s worst mass shooting, spoke at the rally.

Before they spoke, veteran gay activist Nicole Murray Ramirez of San Diego, one of 13 national co-chairs of the march, called for a moment of silence to remember the victims of the Pulse shooting.

Equality March founder David Bruinooge, who served as a co-chair, said he was uncertain of the exact number of people who turned out

for the march. But he said reports he received from knowledgeable observers led him to believe at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 80,000 people from throughout the nation took part in the march and rally.

The U.S Park Service, which issued a permit to allow the Equality March to hold its rally on the Mall, no longer releases crowd estimates for large events as it did in past years.

The march began at 10:08 a.m. at 17th and I Streets, N.W., two blocks north of the White House. It took nearly two hours for all of the marchers to stream past the White House, walk south on 15th Street to Constitution Avenue and head east to the Mall at Third Street, where a stage had been built at the site of the rally.

“There was definitely tens of thousands of people at the march,” said Bruinooge. “And the Mall was filling up but clearly on this hot and blistering day people were finding shade under the trees, which is great. It was a peaceful, safe day and we’re very thankful for everyone who came out for this from the beginning,” he said.

Among the more than a dozen speakers at the rally were veteran lesbian activist Mandy Carter of North Carolina, co-founder of the National Black Justice Coalition; Imani Woody, founder and CEO of D.C.’s Mary’s House for Older Adults; Doug Kimmel, founder of the New York-based LGBTQ seniors

advocacy group SAGE; Sarah McBride, transgender rights advocate and national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign; and Chase Strangio, staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and AIDS Project.

HRC Youth Ambassador Javier Cifuentes and Thomas Tonatiuh Lopez Jr. of the Indigenous Youth Council gave rousing speeches that captured the theme and tone of what leaders of the Equality March said was one of their key messages – that the LGBTQ rights movement must work in solidarity with the nation’s other progressive movements and social causes such as immigrant rights, racial justice, transgender rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, and women’s and reproductive rights.

Many of the marchers carried signs calling on President Donald Trump to respect the rights of LGBTQ people and refrain from rolling back LGBTQ rights. Several marchers, while walking in front of the White House, began to chant, “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go” and “Lock him up.”

Many of the marchers, both women and men, were accompanied by children who held signs expressing support for LGBTQ equality.

Jim Martin, who traveled to D.C. from Ohio to attend the march, said he was proud to march beside his lesbian daughter Shavon Martin.

to give him victory under the center-right party’s electoral college system.

He is highly likely to become prime minister in Ireland’s coalition government, although not immediately. Kenny will remain in place for a couple more weeks while Varadkar holds talks with other parties and independents propping up the Fine Gael-led government.

His confirmation as Taoiseach would come when the lower house of parliament resumes after a break on June 13.

At 38, Varadkar would be Ireland’s youngest prime minister, as well as the first from an ethnic-minority background and the first openly gay leader.

Varadkar was born in Dublin in

1979, the son of an Indian doctor and an Irish nurse. He came out publicly as gay in the run-up to a 2015 referendum that legalized same-sex marriage in Ireland.

If confirmed as prime minister, Varadkar will lead a country still emerging from the shadow of the 2008 global financial crisis, which hit the debt-fueled “Celtic Tiger” economy particularly hard.

He also will have to steer Ireland during complex divorce negotiations between Britain and the EU. Brexit has major implications for Ireland, the only EU country to share a land border with the United Kingdom.

Varadkar said he was “aware of the enormous challenges ahead. I’m ready for those challenges, as are we as a party.”

Ireland’s likely next PM would be first gay, minority leader Wire Report

L

ONDON | Ireland’s governing Fine Gael party elected Leo Varadkar, the gay son of an Indian immigrant, as its new leader and the country’s likely next prime minister June 2.

Varadkar defeated rival Simon Coveney in a contest to replace Enda Kenny, who resigned last month.

“If my election as leader of Fine Gael today has shown anything, it is that prejudice has no hold on this republic,” Varadkar said after his victory was announced in Dublin.

Coveney won the votes of a majority of party members, but Varadkar was backed by most lawmakers and local representatives

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in other news State Dept. allows embassies, consulates to acknowledge Pride month A U.S. State Department spokesperson on Friday said embassies and consulates have received guidance that allows them to recognize Pride month. “Advancing the human rights of vulnerable groups including LGBTI persons is a core component of U.S. foreign policy,” the spokesperson told the Washington Blade. “All people should be protected from discrimination and violence, and must be allowed to exercise their human rights, including their rights to the freedoms of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and religion or belief...LGBTI Pride celebrations are an expression of these rights. As such, the department has issued guidance to embassies and consulates allowing them to, as appropriate to their local context, recognize LGBTI Pride Month.” The rainbow flag was raised over the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic. The U.S. Embassies in Chile and Mexico in recent days have also publicly acknowledged Pride month. The rainbow flag flew over the U.S. Embassy in Cuba on May 17 in commemoration of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Ivanka Trump and Sec. of State Rex Tillerson both acknowleded Pride month. President Trump has not.

Over 200,000 at Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade, region’s biggest Thousands of people from around the world partied in Tel Aviv on June 9 at the Gay Pride Parade, the region’s largest.

The municipality said over 200,000 people attended. The theme of this year’s parade is “Bisexuality Visibility.” Jorge Medina from Mexico said the parade is “amazing.” Tel Aviv has emerged as one of the world’s most gay-friendly travel destinations. Israel stands in sharp contrast to much of the region. Across the rest of the Mideast, gay and lesbian relationships are mostly taboo. Pervasiveness of religion in everyday life, along with strict cultural norms, plays a major factor. Same-sex relations are punishable by death in Iran, Sudan and elsewhere. Gays serve openly in Israel’s military and parliament, but community leaders say the country still has far to go in promoting equality.

Germany starts granting humanitarian visas to Chechen gays Germany has begun granting gays from Chechnya special visas on humanitarian grounds following reports that gay people are being tortured and killed in the Russian republic.

The Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press June 8 that the first man arrived in Germany on June 6 and four other applications for humanitarian visas are being reviewed. Gay activists and others have been alarmed by reports accusing police in Chechnya of detaining and torturing about 100 men suspected of being gay. The AP spoke with victims of the crackdown who supported the claims, though Chechen officials have denied the reports. Germany provides visas on “urgent humanitarian grounds” for people who can demonstrate they’re in serious danger. German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin last month to help protect gay rights in Chechnya.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

viewpoint

Greg stemm

pOsitiVe liVinG Thanks, Concern and an Open Mind from a Founder of St. Pete Pride

A

s ONe OF the FOuNDeRs

of St. Pete Pride, first let me say “thank you.” Over the past 15 years you’ve taken our concept of a truly grassroots community-driven Pride celebration and transformed it into the largest Pride event in the state and one of the premier LGBTQ experiences in the country.

In doing so, you’ve taken it even one step further and helped to transform St. Petersburg from a sleepy retirement community into a blossoming gay mecca becoming known by many as “the San Francisco of the East.” Make no mistake, we are celebrating 15 years of successful Pride celebrations not because of anything we did as founders or the controversial decisions of the current board, but because you supported it. St. Pete Pride was and is your Pride celebration.

In the early days of Pride our success was by no means a given. We were operating with a mayor who openly opposed the event and a neighborhood and business district that was just beginning to see the rewards of redevelopment. Despite these obstacles we worked hard to garner support from the Kenwood neighborhood, the Grand Central Business District and in particular a supportive council member who is now the mayor of St. Petersburg. It

was ultimately their loving support that launched the event into the wildly successful celebration we have all come to enjoy today. As founders we believe the ongoing support of all of them is paramount to the future of the event.

It’s one of the reasons why the five remaining founders have been vocal in our opposition to some of the changes that have been happening with Pride this year.

These same businesses, neighborhood, elected officials and individuals who supported us at the beginning continue to speak out against the move of the venue of St. Pete Pride to a waterfront downtown location. It seems to us that these voices were not adequately heard by the organization and this led to a sharp division in the local gay community during this past year. In today’s difficult political climate what is needed is unity and not division.

Our founding vision of St. Pete Pride was one that was based on grassroots support. After a number of Pride celebrations in Tampa fell victim to putting profit above people and collapsed, it was our vision that to have a truly successful Pride celebration it needed to be organized, run and supported by not only the local gay community, but the general St. Petersburg community as well. It is our deep concern that it seems to us that now St. Pete Pride may be falling into to the same mistakes that killed previous Pride celebrations on the other side of the bay.

The five remaining board members were so concerned about this that they drafted a letter to the current board which in essence said that we were less concerned about the actual move of venue and more concerned about the organization making decisions based more on finances than what the community actually wants.

I was impressed that the board took the time and care to thoughtfully respond to us, but I was very concerned about what they said. I quote from their letter: “In respect to the decision to relocate the main events of St. Pete Pride, the move comes down to several concerns

concern is that they are placing finances over what is best for the community and they respond by saying that’s exactly what they are doing. Our goal was to serve the community and break even so we could continue.

A focus on putting money ahead of that is deeply troubling.

that you have mostly likely been made aware. However, one is a paramount reason: cost. As an organization, we cannot continue to operate on a budget that merely breaks even. This is not sustainable. Although we have a fondness for the main events in Grand Central, the costs have exceeded what we feel comfortable with.”

So we’ve told them our

Part of their reasoning also becomes clear later in the letter. “In the end, the ability for St. Pete Pride to create a savings that will be sustainable for future years builds upon our second program: Community Grants. In 2014, we were able to distribute over $20,000 to local non-profit organizations outside of the already existing beverage program. In 2015,

In today’s difficult political climate what is needed is unity and not division.

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

this decreased to $5,000.

And since the organization took a financial hit with the unexpected increase in city costs, only $1,500 was distributed in 2016.”

These concerns need to be addressed after we have had another wildly successful year this year, and I encourage each of you to get engaged in the process. Right now, the most important thing is for us to set aside the contentious debates of the past year and do what we have been doing for the past 15 years: showing the world that the LGBTQ community is strong, vibrant and believes in the values of diversity and acceptance that our beloved St. Petersburg has come to embrace. I look forward to seeing you there!

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

viewpoint

Dr. steve Yacovelli

homo e r ec tus:

the eVOlutiOn Of us Make Oz Great Again!

I had the pleasure of watching the musical Wicked in downtown Orlando. I’ve seen this show multiple times throughout the years since its 2003 Broadway premier, however fourteen years later, and only about 120-plus days into our 45th President’s reign, the show has taken on a crazy new perspective for me. Maybe we can learn a little wisdom from the Land of Oz.

For those who are unfamiliar with story of Wicked, it’s a musical by Stephen Schwartz based on the amazing book by Gregory Maguire that tells the story of Elphaba, the “Wicked Witch of the West” most of us feared from “The Wizard of Oz.” But it’s an origin-story, a prequel, telling how she came from an unloving father; how she became green; how she was shunned for being an “outsider” because of her intellect and her, well, greenness; and the relationships she forged once she attended college and beyond. And, of course, it dovetails into the L. Frank Baum story (see the “L-F-B” reference there?) that we’ve come to know, with Dorothy and the slippers, the Yellow Brick Road, and the house that fell on a woman – Elphaba’s sister to be exact. It also explores how the Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Glinda all came into being. It’s a great story that puts what I knew as a kid on its head.

When I first read Gregory’s book, it made me

influence of his loyal press secretary Kellyanne Conway Madame Morrible to move his agenda forward and retain the power he has amassed. But he’s neither “wonderful” nor a wizard, merely a tiny-handed, insecure charlatan who fools the citizens of Oz to support his efforts through

up to injustice, “alternative facts,” and the flat out erosion of the rights of others.

Second, as citizens of OzMerica, question stories, do your research, and broaden where you’re getting your information from. In Wicked, Madam Morrible was THE source of news and information throughout the

people (e.g., the Flying Monkeys, Scarecrow) to move her resistance forward. In our world, all of us “others” need to support one another’s right to live healthy, productive lives. Support your Muslim friends, march for women’s reproductive rights and be an advocate for all of us who are

fearmongering (“She’s wicked!”) and the spreading of falsehoods.

What can we learn from the story of Wicked? First, to sit back and be complacent as events unfold around you isn’t the right action. In Wicked, Elphaba took action to be an advocate for the other “others” (the Animals).

In 2017, we need to stand

land, the Fox News of Oz, and she easily could control the narrative to suit her and the Wizard’s agenda.

In our world be sure to find balanced sources of news.

Finally, true change happens with the support of all the “others” involved.

Elphaba is successful because she bands together with other disenfranchised

on the receiving end of hate.

Yes, we can make OzMerica even greater, but only if we can cut through the wickedness of bipartisan bickering, call out the cowardly use of “alternative facts,” and focus on helping everyone – not just a select few – defy gravity.

support your Muslim friends, march for women’s reproductive rights and be an advocate for all of us who are on the receiving end of hate.

1972

2016

g o! tin d ra rlan leb O Ce rs in ea 9y

A

LittLe whiLe AgO,

think about these familiar characters from a new perspective. I grew up thinking the witch was evil; but this story shows you that the viewpoint of the majority is malleable, and that history and “media” can change perspective too easily for the masses. In Wicked, the twist is that the “wicked” witch is a woman who is simply misunderstood and really not wicked at all; rather, she is a victim of circumstance and a public relations spin by people in power with agendas, with her being the outsider – or “other” – who is an easy scapegoat for the wrongdoings of society.

Gee, is this ringing true in 2017 yet?

The political machinations in Wicked are even more interesting in a contemporary context.

In Oz, there are “animals” (lower case “a”) that are the creatures we know in our world, and “Animals” (capital “A”) that are sentient beings with mental capacity and speech like humans. One of the prominent characters, Dr. Dillamond, is a goat Animal professor at the university that starts to see how his kind are being marginalized by the Oz ruling class, to the point they are being herded up into captivity and having their ability to speak taken away. Who are these scapegoats in ‘Merica today?

Elphaba, the forever green outsider, takes Dr. Dillamond’s plight and that of the other Animals to heart and tries to do something right. In one of the biggest songs in this show, “Defying Gravity,” Elphaba is faced with a choice: join the Oz status quo or leave and be a fugitive for what she believes in. She is not sure she can change what’s happening, but feels she must try; she must take a stand against the oppression of others. Again … feel familiar?

The main villain in the show is the Wizard of Oz himself: a rather slimy man who uses deceit, lies, sleight of hand, and the

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70 LGBTQ CHARACTERS were counted in

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talking points I think that’s very important for the public to know, that today the secretary of education, before this committee, refused to affirm that she would put forward a program that bans discrimination based on LGBTQ status of students or bans discrimination based on religion.

— seN. JeFF meRkLey (D-ORe.) speAkiNg DuRiNg A seNAte cOmmittee heARiNg with eDucAtiON secRetARy betsy DevOs.

gaY vulture dads hatch chick at Zoo in amsterdam

T

wO mALe gRiFFON vuLtuRes iN A LONg-stANDiNg ReLAtiONship have successfully hatched an abandoned egg at an Amsterdam zoo. Artis zoo said in a statement May 31 that keepers who found an egg on the floor of the vulture aviary initially put it in an incubator but later placed in a nest that the two male birds built together in the enclosure. The zoo said the vultures, which have been a couple for years, took turns sitting on the egg until it hatched.

Now, the new dads are taking care of the chick by feeding it regurgitated food.

The zoo says it is not unusual for animals, particularly birds, to form same-sex couples, but it is the first time such a pair has hatched an egg at the Dutch capital’s zoo.

netflix acquires transgender activist marsha p. johnson documentarY

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etFLiX hAs pickeD up the wORLDwiDe Rights to David France’s documentary The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson. Johnson played a pivotal role as one of the first people to fight back in the Stonewall Riots in 1969, along with Sylvia Rivera. In 1970, the pair founded the world’s first trans-rights organization, STAR (Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries). Johnson’s body was found floating in New York’s Hudson River in 1992 and the death was ruled a suicide by investigators. France and crime-victim advocate Victoria Cruz will reexamine Johnson’s untimely death and the struggles the transgender community has faced. The documentary will screen at Outfest in Los Angeles. It will stream on Netflix later this year.

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

BrOkeBaCk mOuntain opera coming to nYc in 2018

b

ROKEBACK MOUNTAIN wiLL gO FROm scReeN tO stAge in an opera adaptation premiering at the Lincoln Center in New York City in 2018. The New York City Opera will present the production which will run from May 31-June 4, 2018. Out composer Charles Wuorinen and author Annie Proulx are on board. It will be conducted

by Kazem Abdullah. Ang Lee’s 2005 film starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway. It earned three Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. Wuorinen was originally commissioned to write an opera based on the film in 2008, but the company went bankrupt in 2013. Cast details have yet to be announced.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

twitter campaigns for craYola color to be named after mOOnLiGht character

m

OONLIGHT FANs ARe DeteRmiNeD tO hONOR the character Chiron from the 2017 Best Picture winner in Crayola’s 24-crayon pack. Crayola announced it would be debuting a new blue crayon. but the company was undecided on the name of the color. It began the social media campaign #NametheBlue asking for color name suggestions. Moonlight playwright and screenplay co-writer Tarell Alvin McCraney tweeted “Chiron,” the main character in the Academy Award winning film. The film and play include the line “In moonlight black boys look blue.” Fans followed suit tweeting they thought Chiron would be the perfect color name. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins even retweeted the Chiron suggestions. The winning name will be announced later this year.

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celebrate the power and beauty of diversity

#stpetepride

R

www.stpetepride.com 26

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june 23-25

calendar of events

presented by

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

27

REGIONS CELEBRATES LGBT PRIDE

PRIDE has taken great strides. We’re here to help you take your next step.

At Regions, we’re all about advising and supporting you in things that really matter. Let us help you achieve what you want today and be prepared for the future. Insights by Regions has relevant tips, tools and articles to assist you with an ever-changing financial landscape. Ready to take your next step? We’re here to help.

Eugene Gomez, AVP | Mortgage Loan Officer eugene.gomez@regions.com | 813.517.4893 Drop by a branch or visit regions.com/LGBT to learn more.

© 2017 Regions Bank. Regions and the Regions logo are registered trademarks of Regions Bank.

The LifeGreen color is a trademark of Regions Bank.

28

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arts and entertainment

YEAR

ONE As st. pete pride celebrates its 15th Anniversary, we look back on how it all got started

I

Jeremy Williams

t mAy suRpRise A LOt OF peOpLe

outside of the Tampa Bay area, but St. Pete Pride is the largest Pride celebration in the state of Florida. They obtained that title in 2006 and continued to grow, welcoming more than 100,000 people in St. Petersburg the last weekend of June in 2012, then nearly a quarter of a million in 2015.

This year, St. Pete Pride continues to grow and expand with Pride splitting the parade from the street festival in the Grand Central District and moving the route to downtown St. Petersburg along Bayshore Drive. More than a dozen events will be happening in the days and weeks leading up to Pride

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

weekend, this year happening June 23-25, and more people than ever before are expected to attend these events all over Pinellas County.

As we approach St. Pete Pride at the end of LGBTQ Pride Month, we look back at that

continued on pg. 31 | uu |

29

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

FLAg DAy: It took hundreds of volunteers to hold up a 900-foot rainbow flag. Photo FroM WATERMARK archiveS

FOuNDiNg FAmiLy: The St. Pete Pride founding board of directors and committee chairs: (front row L-R) Greg Stemm, rod houston, Co-Chair brian longstreth, George Shaunessy; (back row L-R) Gerry broughman, Paul anater, carl kuttler, Co-Chair ellen levett, robert victor, chris lovett, claudia cole. Photo

beAD FANs: Clearwater’s Pro Shop Pub

sported beads, hand fans and Hawaiian shirts.

Photo FroM WATERMARK archiveS

pARADiNg: The Suncoast Resort float rocks Central Avenue. Photo FroM WATERMARK archiveS

DRiviNg DivAs: Were these crowns borrowed from the Miss Florida pageant, taking place across town? Photo FroM WATERMARK archiveS

by reX ManiScalco

| uu | st. Pete Pride: Year One from pg.29

first year and see how, where and why we now have the state’s largest Pride here in the ‘Burg.

St. Pete Pride began in 2003, originally to fill a void in the community left open the previous year by Tampa’s Pride celebration known as PrideFest.

“Tampa Bay Pride imploded in 2002, and it had gone the way of porn-star cruises and big-ticketed events and very little community involvement,” says Brian Longstreth. Longstreth is part owner of Punky’s Bar and Grill as well as the owner of Gay St. Pete House, both in St. Petersburg, and is one of the founders of St. Pete Pride.

The final PrideFest was held

July 4th weekend in 2002 and was considered by most who attended to be way off the Pride mark, consisting of high priced items such as a business expo, a rock concert at Raymond James Stadium and a huge wet party at the Florida Aquarium. There was no parade.

“Everything cost money to get in, there was an unusual dependence on porn actors for entertainment, and there was no parade where people could express their, um, pride at being gay,” Watermark wrote of PrideFest at the time.

Tampa Bay Pride spent more than $100,000 in 2002, leaving nothing to continue the following year.

Longstreth, along with LGBTQ business owners, activists and community movers and shakers in St. Petersburg, began to organize what they felt Pride should

have been focused on all along: the community.

They held their first organizational meeting on Feb 27, 2003, at Grand Central Station. More than 100 people attended that meeting. Within a few weeks, St. Pete Pride had over 30 sponsors and nearly $100,000 in cash and services donated. Another change they implemented was moving the date of Pride from early July to the end of June to be in line with the celebration of Stonewall, the reason for the season.

“Really, it was Georgie’s Alibi, the Grand Central Station, myself and a couple other businesses in the district and we just started putting it together,” Longstreth says. “We worked closely with Equality Florida; we talked with the owners of the Suncoast Resort, who did a Pride celebration on July 4th weekend, and got them to

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

move to our Pride weekend and tie in with our event, and they did, and that cooperation was great.”

St. Pete Pride not only got Pride back to the community level, it also introduced a lot of visitors to the Grand Central District, an area, along with the Historic Kenwood Neighborhood, that was attracting a lot of LGBTQ attention.

“St. Pete Pride started to happen at the same time the Grand Central District was attracting more gay and lesbian owned businesses,” Longstreth says. “You had The Garage and Georgie’s Alibi; Suncoast Resort was bringing a lot of people from out of town to St. Pete, but it’s always been a little different. It’s not usually that big nightclub crowd, but it’s more of the arts and entertainment and beaches.”

Getting an event set up in a city the size of St. Petersburg requires

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a lot of planning, but when you have roughly 90 days to get it all put in place it helps to have friends in high places.

“One of the good things that happened for us when we were getting the event set up was that the deputy administrator at the city was Tish Elston,” Longstreth says. “As with any city event there are a lot of departments involved and I called her and said ‘We are thinking of doing this event’ and she said ‘Okay, be at my office next week,’ and she had all those departments there and basically went through the checklist and said, ‘Here’s what has to happen this time and this time and this time, and then you can have your event.’”

St. Pete Pride had the location and the permits, and they were about to have a supportive voice

continued on pg. 33 | uu |

31

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| uu | st. Pete Pride: Year One from pg.31

in the local government.

“There was mostly silence from City Hall,” Longstreth says.

“I don’t think anyone worked to actively stop [St. Pete Pride] from happening but there certainly wasn’t a level of support that we enjoy now from Mayor Rick Kriseman and the rest of City Council.”

Kriseman, who at the time was a city councilmember, was the only member to speak out for Pride.

“Robert Danielson (who was director of marketing & public relations for St. Petersburg at the time) drafted a proclamation and Rick Kriseman was the only city councilmember that would sign it,” Longstreth says. “And he was also the only one who attended the event.”

Longstreth and the rest of the board began to piece together the events that would become the first-year celebration of St. Pete Pride.

“Suncoast Resort would bring in entertainment for their July 4th celebration, and since they were moving it to Pride weekend it looked like they were there for our celebration, but really they were hired on by Suncoast Resort,” Longstreth says.

“Everything we did was all geared towards being more community based. We wanted to keep the festival booths priced low so small businesses and non-profits could participate. We wanted to make sure anyone could participate.

Actually the parade was free... or the promenade.”

The promenade was a combination march and parade in the Grand Central District that started at Georgie’s Alibi and proceeded east on 3rd Ave. N. to 30th St., then south to Central Ave., and ended on Central Ave. and 26th St. “We made it part march and part parade because we wanted to make sure it was a little bit political as well as a celebration,” Longstreth says.

The promenade kicked off Saturday, June 28, 2003 at 11:00 a.m., just as the rain started to fall, but that didn’t bother anyone.

The theme of the promenade was “Parasols on Parade,” so hundreds of colorful parasols went up as nearly 800 marchers representing more than 60 groups, businesses and organizations marched

biRDs OF A FeAtheR: Tampa Pride’s Mark Bias shares his feather boa with two beaded blondes.

Photo by reX ManiScalco

FAst & FAbuLOus: Stratton Politzer

and nadine Smith of EQFL. Photo FroM WATERMARK archiveS

through the streets of Grand Central throwing beads to the thousands of attendees on the sidelines.

At the end of the marchers was a 900-foot rainbow flag which stretched down Central Avenue.

The display was so fantastic that the promenade made it onto CNN’s national wrap-up of Pride events across the U.S. Following the promenade, Central Avenue, between 24th and 26th Street, was filled with exhibitors, vendors, food and rainbow flags as people celebrated Pride. About 120 vendors welcomed 10,000 people into the Grand Central District, where they listened to local musicians perform, activists give speeches and enjoyed the community – getting back to the

pRiDe pARties: Revelers gather at a post-Pride party at Suncoast Resort. Photo FroM WATERMARK archiveS

pROuD pAst: Dykes on Bikes stReet cReD: An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 crowded Central Avenue for the post-parade Streetfest. Photo by reX ManiScalco

basics that had been forgotten at PrideFest.

“That was kind of the message and the direction we wanted to go.

We wanted to be more in touch with the community,” Longstreth says. “Another cool effect we didn’t think about much was that the parade route, the promenade route, went through historic Kenwood. You had families with small children sitting on their front yards enjoying the parade.

And you talk to the parents and they are very adamant about making sure their children understood diversity and that everyone is welcome in the neighborhood, and that was kind of a cool experience.”

St. Pete Pride continued the celebration into Sunday with an Equality Florida Family Values

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

picnic and an official Pride T-dance at the Suncoast Resort, and by the week’s end the board was not only impressed with the turnout for St. Pete Pride, they were also happy that they were able to give back to the community, namely in the amount of $10,000.

“I remember going to an InterPride conference after our event saying ‘What do you do with the leftover money?’ And they were just shocked that we had leftover money after the first year,” Longstreth recalls.

“We have always kind of made that a large component of the fundraising and the money that was raised. We always try to make sure a good amount of it goes back to the community to assist smaller organizations that needed

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remained a crowd favorite. Photo FroM

WATERMARK archiveS

help getting started and to help build community.”

Longstreth says the key to the success of that first year, and the 14 years that followed, was that there was good communication between the board and the organizers and the businesses that were supporting it.

“We always tried to make sure any issues that came up, they got discussed and clarified. What needs to be done to make sure next year is better and continue the growth?” he says. “I always heard from other organizers of Pride events that they look at St. Pete Pride as kind of a new model to where you didn’t have to spend all this money on entertainment to make a Pride event happen. It was more about community.”

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NAZI PERSECUTION OF HOMOSEXUALS 1933-1945

Proud Participant of the 2017

St. Pete Pride Festival On display through July 2, 2017 at The Florida Holocaust Museum

Presented locally by

The traveling exhibition Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945 is on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Image credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy Schwules Museum, Berlin.

The FHM Film Series:

Paragraph 175

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Happy Pride from

Locations in Hillsborough and Pinellas

For more information: MyEPIC.org Hillsborough: (813) 237-3066 Pinellas: (727) 328-3260

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EPIC 34

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

ST. PETE PRIDE RECEPTION

wednesday, june 21, 7-9 p.m. museum of fine arts, 255 beach drive ne, st. petersburg

The official St. Pete Pride weekend kicks off Wednesday (you didn’t think a Pride weekend as fabulous as this one was just two days, did you?) with the reception at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. “That’s our VIP reception,” Skains says. “But it is open to anyone who wants to come out and mingle with our sponsors and special guests.”

Tickets are $30 and the event features an open bar and light hors d’oeuvres. Space is limited so get your tickets to this one fast.

YEAR FIFTEEN st. pete pride is spreading its wings, so here are sparkling details of all the big events for the weekend.

ST. PETE PRIDE ROOFTOP KICKOFF thursday, june 22, 7-9 p.m. kimpton hotel Zamora, 3701 gulf blvd., st. pete beach

What better way to spend your Thursday evening then on the roof of the beautiful Kimpton Hotel Zamora on St. Pete Beach at the Castile Rooftop Bar. Take in the sprawling landscape of the Gulf of Mexico and the intercoastal waterway or check out the sights a little closer to you as the rooftop party is always filled with the most beautiful people St. Pete has to offer. Get ready to feel like a Kardashian as you sip cocktails, listen to live entertainment and feel that seabreeze blowing through your hair. Admission is free.

I

Jeremy Williams

t’s NO secRet thAt FOR the

first time in its 15 years, the St. Pete Pride parade is moving from the Grand Central District and heading downtown, but that isn’t the only change to the schedule.

“There are always lots of events during Pride month and this is the first year that we actively went out to recruit events from all over Pinellas County,” St. Pete Pride Executive Director Eric Skains

THE SP2 CONCERT friday, june 23, 7-10 p.m. north straub park, 400 bayshore drive ne, st. petersburg

The SP2 concert is still the Friday night staple but it will have a new location. “The concert will be in North Straub Park right across the street from the Vinoy Hotel,” Skains says. “The concert will consist of performances from some of the best musical acts Tampa Bay has to offer, including Melissa Crispo, Geri X and The Spazmatics. The concert is free admission, and beverage sales from the concert will benefit the St. Pete Pride Community Grants Program.

ST PETE PRIDE CELEBRATION, PARADE AND FIREWORKS saturday, june 24, 2-10 p.m. along bayshore drive ne, downtown st. petersburg

Saturday is packed full of events from breakfast time in the morning to bedtime sometime long after midnight. “So it is lined up to be a full day of activities for people to be able to experience St. Petersburg and downtown,” Skains says. “The day will actually start with brunch before the Pride celebration along Bayshore Drive.

Local performer Matthew McGee

says. “We have an extensive list of events compiled from all this information we received, and they are all amazing events.”

Some of the events are the same – a St. Pete Pride reception at the Museum of

will be hosting a brunch at Jeffrey Jew’s Stillwater Tavern on Beach Dr. N. starting at 11:00 a.m. The St. Pete Pride Celebration begins at 2 p.m. in North Straub Park.

“We will have live entertainment on our stage all the way to the start of the parade,” Skains says.

A new addition to the celebration, and a first for the state of Florida, St. Pete Pride’s TransPride March, sponsored

by Equality Florida and its transgender inclusion initiative TransAction Florida, kicks off ahead of the Pride parade at 6 p.m. and will start at Albert Whitted Park. “So it is part of the parade even though it is walking in an opposite direction than the

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

Fine Arts, the St. Pete Pride Street Festival in the Grand Central District, and the Glamstands on the parade route. Some events are the same but in new locations, such as the parade and the SP2 concert, and some of them are brand spanking new like the Trans March and a fireworks show.

Have no fear. We have a breakdown of all the events, where they are happening and what you can expect from the 15th anniversary of St. Pete Pride.

rest of the parade,” Skains says.

“We do it that way so people can participate in both; people can march in the parade and be marching in the direction where all the floats will be lined up the rest of the parade to go.”

That location is at Vinoy Park, the end of the TransPride March and the beginning of the St. Pete Pride parade.

The parade starts at 6:30 p.m. in Vinoy Park and heads down Bayshore Drive toward Albert Whitted Park. “We are looking at about 150 groups marching in the parade plus the Grand Marshals,” Skains says. “So we should have about 160 participants in the Pride parade this year, which

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would make it our largest parade ever.” The night parade, only the fifth Pride parade in the country to have its parade in the evening, will have Bayshore Drive lit up with twinkling lights and glow sticks, and St. Pete Pride is offering two VIP viewing experiences.

The Glamstands will be located on the parade route in North Straub Park with easy access to a private bar, gourmet food, party-starting DJs and private bathrooms. You not only get front row seating to the parade but you also get a premiere view of the fireworks happening after the parade. Tickets for the Glamstands are $50 for a single ticket and $600 for a private booth that fits 10.

Another option is the Bleachers at Straub. Also located on the parade route in North Straub Park, the Bleachers offer you an exclusive cash bar, quick access to food, private bathrooms and viewing area so you won’t miss a moment of the action.

Single tickets for the Bleachers at Straub are $25.

ST. PETE PRIDE STREET FESTIVAL

sunday, june 25, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. grand central district, central avenue, st. petersburg

The celebration wraps up on Sunday with St. Pete Pride’s Street Festival in the Grand Central District. The street festival runs down Central Avenue from 31st St to 22nd St. and will be split into three sections: the Grand Central Market, an Art Walk and the Food and Exhibitors area. Something else a bit different this year: there’s a lot more entertainment.

“Each bar that has the capability of hosting a stage will be the official stages of Pride,” Skains says. Four stages will be set up on Central: one at Punky’s, one at Queenshead, one at Old Key West and one at Dog Bar. St. Pete Pride’s Street Festival is one of the largest community events in St. Petersburg all year, attended by tens of thousands of people, so come out ready to party and make some new friends.

For more information on these and other official St. Pete Pride events throughout June, visit StPetePride.com.

35

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arts and entertainment

Photo by Steve Gulluck

THE OTHER WOMAN Pop pioneer alison moyet returns with a new record, a new tour and her same recognizable sense of aesthetic transcendence and attitude

I

Billy Manes

F yOu ARe uNFAmiLiAR with u.k.

songstress Alison Moyet, it’s likely because you weren’t reading the liner notes while hiding in your bedroom in the 1980s and ruing your existence.

Moyet forged her career from bar-band bluster to synth-pop, bedsit belter when she joined Vince Clarke – later of Depeche Mode and Erasure – in pop duo Yaz. That banc crowded the Top of the Pops with hits like “Only You,” “Don’t Go” and “Situation,” among others before acrimony set in. And though Yaz only lasted for two albums – Upstairs at Eric’s and You and Me Both – Moyet’s legendary status among fans came faster than the ability of the record label to press the music to the

vinyl. She was, and is still indeed, the real deal.

After cracking the U.K. Top Ten a few years ago with the minutes, Moyet returns on June 16 with Other (Cooking Vinyl), a collection of songs that even her publicist admits “isn’t quite as immediate” as its predecessor. From the brooding title track that seems to speak to everyone living on the outside looking in to its first single “Reassuring Pinches,” Moyet isn’t holding back any

continued on pg. 38 | uu |

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

37

So the title track “Other” is a brave choice to introduce the album. With lyrics like, “I don’t want another rock/ To hang about my neck/ You see bejeweled/ I see bedecked in dead stars.”

| uu | Alison Moyet from pg.37

lyrical punches. Playing out more like a collection of poems than a nightclub floor-filler, Other rewards in other ways. It may be the most intelligent and considered record we’ve heard in years, which is why, when we stated as much on her Twitter, the record company was concerned and Moyet was overjoyed in her personal response.

“That’s brilliant. It’s such a small world, isn’t it?” she laughs.

We talked to Alison before her album release and three month sojourn by plane and by car, which, as of yet, does not include dates in Florida. We also bought our tickets for New York in September, because that’s just what you do.

Watermark: You and other longtime pop heroes like Tracey Thorn (of Everything but the Girl) are communicating your day-to-day emotions on social media, so it feels like everybody knows you. Has that changed the experience of the pop medium for you?

Alison Moyet: I think it’s been helpful, because such assumptions can be made that you learn as a woman, especially if you’re part of the mainstream, that you somehow must be asinine and lacking challenge. I like that people don’t get to put words in my mouth. That’s quite a good thing. Also, I like a bit of a scrap; I like an argument.

So if anybody comes for me, I’m like, “Hello, it’s party time.” People go and actually go and buy your records these days, you know, it’s lovely!

It’s notable and appreciated that you’re releasing Other on vinyl and cassette, basically reminding people of why they fell in love with music in the first place.

Yeah, and the fact that you can have an album made as an album, as opposed to just like streams of hopeful radio singles. In fact, first thing this morning, I was just listening to the first pressing of the album, and it reminded me of one of my early managers – this is going to date me – when CDs first came out. He said, “No one’s going to go, ‘What’s on the B-side, you know?’”

There’s something very special about having an album right in front

38

“Other” is such a cool song and I love it so much, but I knew that it would never be put out to radio, in the sense of being in a typical forum.

But lyrically, it captures the meaning of the album: What is the Other? I wanted to put it out there, because it throws people. As you know this album is electronic, and this track isn’t, but I’ve always been a bit contrarian like that.

When I heard “A Beautiful Gun,” coming from Orlando, I got pretty emotional. I thought I heard the word “gay” in there, which conjured obvious feelings from this area after last year’s tragedy.

Only You: Pop legend Alison Moyet looks up and forward. Photo by Steve Gulluck of you while you listen to it, and you can touch it and read the words, color the cracks.

Let’s talk about Other as a full piece – and I may be over-speaking and a little academic about this – it seems like it correctly, almost existentially, follows your last album, the minutes.

It’s a natural follow, and I think that I’ve developed my own relationship with [producer] Guy [Sigsworth], so we got to this place even more quickly than the last album, where we don’t even have to describe things. We kind of know what’s going on. We’ve got like wordless communication. And that, for me, is such a rare thing to happen. It’s just really brilliantly guided, because he just gets me. He’s not trying to push me into a corner of something that’s going to be themed mainstream for a middle-aged woman. He accepts me as an artist, and he treats me as one.

I feel like for your first few solo records you were being pushed into that same corner, the big-haired

industry corner of women with big hair like Stevie Nicks.

Well it was all that, but before I was even in Yaz, I’d been playing punk bands and blues bands and nothing serious was going on on radio. I didn’t really know that many pop records other than those from my childhood. I was obviously a kid listening to radio and the telly then.

The late ‘70s and early ‘80s kind of passed me by, because I was moving into alternate circles. So when it came to doing those first two albums [Alf and Raindancing], it was really novel. I was going to write songs; I was going to make a record. I never dreamt, I never thought in terms of a long-term career. I never thought, “Do you know what it’s going to be like to be represented by one record for 20 years?” Because that’s what happens: You get put into a pot. If I had known that, I’d have been more careful. But then the voice that you have – and obviously I don’t mean the singing voice – is very different to the one that you have as a 30- or 40-year-old, and that you’re not still living in the subconscious of your youth.

We’re told as journalists to

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

write to a sixth-grade level, which can be insulting. Other is so complex, and I was told by your publicist that it wouldn’t be very immediate.

It’s a slow burn with percolating punctuation.

I have the same managers as Little Mix and they used to do One Direction, you know – they’re used to having very sellable, very instant and recognizable pop records. They have an understanding of a certain way to do things, so I come along with my weird terms and they’re brilliant. They’re brilliant. They never try to change me, never try to stop me, never try to say, “You’re hanging yourself here.” They say, “Do what you want to do.” They don’t always understand it; they don’t always get things like that.

But they’re really supportive about that. This music is so much more based on poetry and nuance and uses a language that is not always common parlance, but that’s who I am. I’m a middle-aged woman.

I think a lot of middle-aged women resent the invisibility that is kind of forced upon them. I quite enjoy it.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

My manager said that: “Why are you using the word ‘gay?’” I said, “No, it’s ‘gait.’” I’m glad, because for me, that is probably one of the two songs that has been influenced by the internet, this really strange dynamic you get from some quarters who state that they can batter a human being to the ground verbally and emotionally, and yet if you touch the subject that maybe guns aren’t such a godly thing, all hell breaks loose. It’s that heavy for them. Just the ridiculous attitude that a gun shows strength when in fact a gun is completely the opposite; it’s like you’ve got the kids on the run. That’s who you are. You’re frightening vulnerable people. How exactly could you be more masculine? This is the sum of your life: This item that serves only to intimidate other people. What kind of life is that? Anybody who can announce that, because of this, God is just in your corner, it just boils down to the absurd.

On “April 10,” to what are you referring? I think that’s also a really magical track on this record, if only for it being the first time I’ve heard you do spoken word.

Also, it’s quite good.

“April 10,” this goes back to what I was saying about just observing.

This whole album is quite doused with Brighton. You’ll know that Brighton is quite an equalizer, a place where everybody can be who they are. You will see gay lovers happily walking down the street arm-in-arm, and transgender

This music is so much more based on poetry and nuance and uses a language that is not always common parlance, but that’s who I am. I’m a middle-aged woman. I think a lot of middle-aged women resent the invisibility that is kind of forced upon them. I quite enjoy it.

—Alison Moyet

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It goes into talking about all of these things: How we can all experience the same day, we can all experience the same faith, and yet all of it is very different. On one end, someone is getting married on a boat; on another, someone is burying their lover. It’s all the same day and the same light.

It’s odd to here you do spoken word, still, with that booming voice available at the ready.

That was something that Vince [Clarke of Yaz] was really into, that sense of loops and samples. For me, for this album, it’s – I say lyrically based, but it’s kind of poetry based.

You know, when you’re writing the song, you have a sense of how many verses to use and how to chop up the chorus. With this particular poem, I felt so strongly about all the imagery that I really didn’t want to take its wheels off. I wanted it to have the shape that it had.

Spoken word is used a lot in rap and stuff like that, but this is used in the manner of an English poem.

Obviously, I’ve taken on my British

accent as opposed to incorporating this Atlantic tone.

You’ve done a couple of covers, one of which was Jules Shear’s “Whispering Your Name,” and that was a huge statement in the gay community. Did you get backlash for that?

Well, from some quarters, but not any opinion that I care about. In that situation, I wouldn’t care about anybody’s opinion. The song was written by a man about a woman, and I liked the sounds of those words. And I also liked the idea that for some sections of society, they’re not going to have to switch things over to make it appropriate for their lives. They can have a woman’s voice singing for women. I enjoy that. I enjoy that inclusivity.

In that way, you’ve become celebrated in LGBTQ community.

For me, I grew up with the gay community, being 15 or 16, you know; this is not about me patronizing a group of people.

This is about me speaking about people who are in my life and who I love.

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PRELUDE TO PRIDE

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

community calendar

event planner

arts+entertainment

orlando

orlando

Divine sisters of Filth

Saved by the ‘90s, June 16, House of Blues, Orlando. 407-934-2583; HouseOfBlues.com/Orlando

thuRsDAy, JuNe 22, 8:00- 11:00 p.m. the veNue, ORLANDO Join the Orlando Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for a variety show that celebrates the first drag superstar, Divine. The evening will be packed with filth and fun hosted by Sister Ambrosia Discordia (aka Logan Donahoo) and will feature performances from Axel Andrews, April Fresh, Mr. Mrs. Adrien, the Broadway Brunch Bunch and more as they pay tribute to the one and only John Waters.

Proceeds go to Two Spirit Health Services. Tickets start at $15 and are available at OrlandoSisters.TicketLeap.com.

coffee & cake w/ Dina Mack and richard reep, June 16, Art Gallery at Mills Park, Orlando. 407-234-7033; TheArtGalleryAtMillsPark.com Derrick barry at #FlexFridays, June 16, Southern Nights, Orlando. 407-412-5039; SouthernNightsORL.com recycle art Show, June 16-25, W Grant St, Orlando. Facebook.com/ PinkHairProductions Gods & Monsters 2 year anniversary celebration, June 17, Gods & Monsters, Orlando. 407-270-6273; GodMonsters.com little Fish, huge comedy Show, June 20, Little Fish Huge Pond, Sanford. 407-963-5522; LawrenceGriffinII.com Walk a Mile in her Shoes, June 22, Harbor House of Central Florida, Orlando. 407-886-2856; HarborHouseFL.com all happiness, Judy Garland, June 24, Winter Park Playhouse, Orlando. 407-645-0145; WinterParkPlayhouse.org a tribute to audrey hepburn Series, June 24, Garden Theatre, Winter Garden. 407-877-4736; GardenTheatre.org The Rocky Horror Picture Show, June 25, Oblivion Taproom, Orlando. 407-704-4757; OblivionTaproom.com bite night, June 26, Orchid Gardens at Church Street, Orlando. 407-970-3277; OrchidGardenOrlando.com Diana ross, June 27, Dr. Phillips Center, Orlando. 844-513-2014; DrPhillipsCenter.org

she’s coming out Photo courteSy Diana roSS’ Facebook PaGe

The one and only Diana ross is easing on down the road to perform at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater June 21, Van Wezel Performing Arts Center in Sarasota June 23 and Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando June 27.

Showgirls in Drag, June 27, The Venue, Orlando. 407-412-6895; TheVenueOrlando.com 3rd annual boys in the Jungle, June 29, Southern Nights, Orlando. 407-412-5039; SouthernNightsORL.com

Pride in the Park, June 17, Munn Park, Lakeland. PolkPrideFL.com; 863-800-0726 Under Fire, June 17, freeFall Theatre, St. Petersburg. 727-498-5205; FreeFallTheatre.com

raspberry Pride, June 29, Will’s Pub, Orlando.

407-748-8256; WillsPub.org lita Ford-velvet Sessions, June 29, Hard Rock Hotel, Orlando. 407-503-7625; HardRockHotelOrlando.com

Pride after Dark, June 17, LkldLive, Lakeland.

PolkPrideFL.com; 863-800-0726

tampa baY nazi Persecution of homosexuals, April 30-July 2, The Florida Holocaust Museum, St. Petersburg. 727-820-0100; TheFHM.org Sawmill’s Summer Women’s Fest, June 16, Sawmill Resort, Dade City. 352-583-0664; FLSawmill.com Fortune Feimster, June 16, LkldLive, Lakeland.

PolkPrideFL.com; 863-800-0726

balance tampa bay’s June Service, June 17, Metro Wellness, St. Petersburg.

MetroTampaBay.org; 727-321-3854;

balance tampa bay’s June Social, June 22, Capital Grille, Tampa. 727-512-1304; BalanceTampaBay.org tiGlFF presents A Very Sordid Wedding, June 23, AMC Sundial 20, St. Petersburg.

813-879-4220; TIGLFF.com Dragtastic featuring randy roberts, June 23, The Birchwood, St. Petersburg. 727-896-1080; TheBirchwood.com

sarasota

house teams live, June 18, American Stage, St. Petersburg.

727-823-7529; AmericanStage.org

yesterdayze, June 17, Venice Theatre, Venice. 941-488-1115; VeniceStage.com

the Golden Gurlz- Prelude to Pride, June 19 and 26, American Stage, St. Petersburg.

727-823-7529; AmericanStage.org

church of the trinity’s chili cook off, June 18, MCC Church of the Trinity, Sarasota.

941-355-0847; TrinityMCC.com

an evening of light, love & laughter to benefit the hope lodge, June 21, Punky’s Bar and Grill, St. Petersburg.

727-201-4712; PunkysBar.com

Diana ross, June 23, Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, Sarasota. 941-953-3368; VanWezel.org

Diana ross, June 21, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater. 727-791-7400; RuthEckerdHall.com

alSo youth ambassador training, June 24, ALSO Youth, Sarasota. 941-951-2576; ALSOYouth.org

Celebrate Your status sAtuRDAy, JuNe 24, NOON - miDNight the FuLL mOON LOuNge At wOODstOck, ORLANDO Hope & Help wants to invite you out to Celebrate Your Status. This is an all day event for people regardless of their status. There will be a DJ, family fun and educational activities to learn more about health and wellness. This is a free event. For more information, visit HopeAndHelp.org.

tampa baY

The FHM Film series: Paragraph 175 & Panel Discussion weDNesDAy, JuNe 21, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

FLORiDA hOLOcAust museum, st. peteRsbuRg The Florida Holocaust Museum invites the community to attend a special showing of the gay Holocaust film, Paragraph 175, followed by a panel discussion featuring Tony Armer, Department Head of Film at Ringling College of Art and Design Bradley Battersby, Dr. Christopher Boulton and Rachel Feinman. The event is free and open to the public, however an RSVP is required to attend.

Please call 727-820-0100 ext. 301 to reserve your spot.

Out of the shadows: LGBTQ Homeless Youth Project thuRsDAy, JuNe 22, NOON - 1:00 p.m. guLFpORt pubLic LibRARy, guLFpORt This “lunch and learn” program will feature video footage of theatrical performances depicting the challenges facing the alarming number of LGBTQ youth displaced from their homes in Pinellas County. Members of the LGBTQ Homeless Youth Project will be on hand to speak and take questions. This event is free to attend.

For more information, visit MyGulfport.us/GPL.

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

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

43

w i t h o u t

p r e j u d i c e

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DJs Johnny Crus, Xplicid & Change: 12pm - 3am Giveaways - Male Entertainers Showtime: 11:30pm and 1:00am featuring your host Iman, the Flamingo Blu Theater Players and your current reigning Mr. Flamingo 2017: Johnny Sparks

Pride After Party Sunday June 25 SUNDAY T-DANCE

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

overheard

I

get off mY lawn

N FRONt OF A QuAiNt gReeN-AND-white pANeLeD hOuse, adorning the freshly manicured green lawn on 27th Avenue in St. Petersburg’s Old Northeast neighborhood June 3, laid five derogatory signs. The first four calling for “No Jews,” “No Infidels,” “No Fags” and “No Retards”; a fifth sign read “...Great Again!” The house – and the signs – are the property of St. Petersburg resident Roland Price. Price spoke with WFLA News Channel 8 and told them that the signs are self-explanatory. This isn’t the first time Price has stirred up controversy and frustration among his neighbors. According to neighbors, he has posted signs in the past displaying his political and social views ranging from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.

The Tampa Bay Times has also found out that since 2004, the police have been called out to the Price residence 44 different times for aggravated assault, noise complaints, criminal mischief, theft and domestic incidents. By the morning of June 4 the signs had all disappeared, but not because Price had a change of heart, but because one of the neighbors had had enough. According to several neighbors, someone came in overnight and took them away.

Price’s response? A new sign went up June 10.

In big red letters along the top it reads “HEALTH WARNING NOTICE.” The sign continues in smaller, black letters and says: “St. Petersburg Pride Event.”

A heavily concentrated mass of homosexuals, many with compromised immune systems (AIDS), will be entering the community in the coming weeks.”

The sign goes on to be as ignorant about the LGBTQ community and HIV/AIDS as it can be before finishing with “Contact mayor Rick Kriseman for dates & tines (sic).” Apparently only gays, Jews and infidels use spell check. Bless his heart.

O

tampa baY out+about

make us equal

N the ONe-yeAR mARk OF the puLse shOOtiNg, Florida Gov. Rick Scott proclaimed it “Pulse Remembrance Day.” One person who was “glad” to hear Scott not only designate the day but also hear him mention the Hispanic and LGBTQ communities was Equality Florida’s executive director Nadine Smith, but she wants him to take that declaration and run full speed with it into complete equality. Speaking at a news conference in Ybor City June 12, Smith stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Congresswoman Kathy Castor and GaYbor District co-founder Carrie West in calling for Scott to finally sign an executive order that would protect Floridians against discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. “We want to make sure that is in addition to, and not a substitute for, the real work of making sure that discrimination is not acceptable in the state of Florida, and he can do that with an executive order and a stroke of a pen,” Smith said at the news conference. Equality Florida started a hashtag campaign, #HonorThemWithAction, which calls for leaders, community members and elected officials to honor the 49 lives lost at Pulse with action that will benefit the community.

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SISTER CITY: (L-R) Tampa Pride’s carrie West, Congresswoman kathy castor and Equality Florida’s nadine Smith join together to remember Pulse at Centennial Park in Tampa June 12. Photo by Mark biaS WeSt

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hOt hANgOut: (L-R) adrian Fernandez, Fabian vila and chhoy Sutimek at Southern Nights in Tampa for Fuego Fridays June 2. Photo courteSy chhoy SutiMek

3

pAND-emONium: emanuel carrero (L) and Scott Daniel left St. Pete for the weekend to travel to Pandora in Orlando June 11. Photo courteSy Scott Daniel

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bLOwiNg AiR: Hot 101.5’s Miguel Fuller is excited to use a leaf blower as part of “The Miguel & Holly Show” segment Headphone Karaoke at the studio in St. Petersburg June 12.

Photo courteSy hot 101.5 FM

5

RAys pRiDe: (L-R) rachel Stevenson, art lawrence, David Zembrzycki and brian longstreth enjoy Pride Night with the Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg June 10. Photo

courteSy DaviD ZeMbrZycki

6

DiveRse LuNch: (L-R) bob Sanders, eric Mathis, ashley vaughan, Tampa Mayor bob buckhorn, Jane byers, Joshua cruz and blaine lawson enjoyed the view from The Tampa Club at the top of the Bank of America building in Tampa for the Tampa Bay Diversity Chamber’s annual luncheon June 7. Photo by

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JereMy WilliaMS

7

ROwDy LADies: (L-R) ercilia albistu, Sally l.

Phillips, Pelican Pete, Susan Smith and kate newcomer show their Pride at the Tampa Bay Rowdies Pride Night at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg June 10.

Photo courteSy SuSan SMith

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biRthDAy bOy: nick Janovsky (L) celebrates his birthday with friends, including Jennifer real (R), at The Mills Restaurant in St. Petersburg June 1. Photo courteSy

8

nick JanovSky

7 watermark Your LGBTQ life.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

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Orlando

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watermark Your LGBTQ life.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

overheard

orlando out+about

preach love not hate

F

ROm DRAg QueeNs tO beARs, we know what to expect at a Pride event.

Some of those expectations are the religious fanatics usually protesting in their designated sections.

Unfortunately, on Monday June 12, a day of remembrance for the 49 victims of the Pulse shooting, approximately three “Christians” showed up with hateful signs and words.

To assist in controlling the situation, the Orlando Police Department were seen asking the protestors to move away from Pulse. During the incident, several cell phone videos posted to social media recorded the interaction. As one of the protesters decided to move forward toward the club, the officers stood their ground, and as he pushed forward, this resulted in the officers taking charge and detaining the man. All the while, the crowds were overheard shouting “Love not Hate.” In the video, you can also see a gentleman completely trolling the protester by placing “pro-LGBTQ” stickers on the distracted protesters signs. No word if the detained protester was arrested or charged with anything, but kudos to the Orlando Police Department and kudos to the sticker guy!

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digital pulse

T

he ORANge cOuNty RegiONAL histORy ceNteR has opened a temporary exhibit for one week only.

The exhibit showcases items recovered from the various memorial sites set up in Central Florida soon after the Pulse nightclub attack.

Although, this is only a temporary engagement, a digital catalogue of the items has been made available to the public to view as the One Orlando Collection.

In digitally preserving 5,000 artifacts, anyone can view these by visiting www.

OneOrlandoCollection.com

the center expands

T

he gLbt cOmmuNity ceNteR OF ceNtRAL FLORiDA finally opened its new doors after a nearly two-year remodel. To commemorate the opening on the one year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shootings, the Center hosted a breakfast at the newly renovated space alongside with the Orlando Police Department.

Staff and volunteers, we were told, worked diligently through the weekend in preparation for Monday’s events. Art was moved and dust was cleared and a new art presentation was installed in the main room dedicated to the 49 victims.

4

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pROuD musiciANs: the cover Girlz play at the first ever Pridefest Kissimmee at the Kissimmee Civic Center June 10. Photo by Danny Garcia

2

A DRu suppORteR: State Rep. carlos Guillermo Smith (L) with his mother Johanne Smith at the official launch of The Dru Project at The Abbey in Orlando June 11. Photo by JereMy WilliaMS

3

gRAy DAy: (L-R) J. colon acevedo, Jason lambert, nicholas Smith and Marcos arrais get ready for Macy Gray to take the stage during Gay Days at Parliament House in Orlando June 3. Photo by JereMy WilliaMS

4

LOve is LOve: Doug White (L) and eddie Diaz watch GayDayS and onePULSE Foundation’s “Love Cabaret” at the DoubleTree Hotel by Sea World June 3.

Photo by JaSon Donnelly

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seA OF ReD: Red shirts were everywhere at Disney’s Magic Kingdom of the original Gay Day June 3.

Photo by brian becnel

6

the 49 FuND: (L-R) Scott Penyak, barry Miller and David Dorman braved the storms to be at Orlando City Hall’s Rotunda for The 49 Fund’s scholarship announcement June 10. Photo by

7

Jake StevenS

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FReeDOm FANs: A group of attendees gathered outside the Central Florida Sounds of Freedom and Color Guard spring concert, “We. Are. Americans.” at the Orlando Repertory Theatre in Orlando June 11. Photo by

rick claGGett

8

ceNteR stAge: GLBT Community Center of Central Florida’s executive director terry Decarlo in the recently opened, newly renovated Center space June 13. Photo by kathleen harPer

8 watermark Your LGBTQ life.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

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Cake bakery:

Let Them Eat Cake

Cake flaVOrs:

Chocolate with raspberry filling, carrot cake and vanilla with fruit filling

weddinG planner: natalia Day at Days Remembered

phOtOGrapher/ VideOGrapher:

Michelle Caudle at Silver Moon Custom Art Photography

interestinG faCt:

They couldn’t agree on just one wedding song, so Lexi and Tonya each picked one and had two “first dance” songs.

Tonya picked “The Most Beautiful Girl”

by Prince and Lexi’s was “I Choose you”

by Sara Bareilles.

Photo by Silver Moon Custom Art and Photography

“I

’LL NeveR FORget the FiRst

time I met Tonya,” Lexi says about her wife of two months. The two met at Salty’s, a bar and music venue in Gulfport, where Tonya was performing with her band, The Cheaters. Tonya was single. Lexi wasn’t.

But there was instant chemistry.

“My then-girlfriend looked at me after I was introduced to Tonya and said, ‘What was that?’ as if she felt it too,” says Lexi. Because of circumstances and relationships, they didn’t end up together until two years later, but neither of them forgot that day.

The real mechanism for their union: Facebook. Lexi had tickets to see Lady Antebellum and needed a date. She posted on Facebook, and Tonya expressed interest. A few seconds later, they had plans for their first date. “We didn’t end up going to the concert together,” says Tonya, “but she did come to my show the next day and kissed me afterward. I was smitten.”

True to the lesbian stereotype (their words), it didn’t take long for them to commit fully and decide marriage was on the table.

Lexi and Tonya travel together regularly, but the trip that would change their lives forever was to

San Francisco. Lexi came home to the house filled with candles, balloons and a note on the kitchen counter from Tonya saying that a surprise visit to the City by the Bay was coming up. The couple had visited earlier in their relationship and Tonya remembered that Lexi wanted to return soon.

They made their way to the Golden Gate Bridge, and as Lexi took a panoramic photo, a white box appeared in the phone’s viewer. Inside, she found a ring-shaped Pandora charm. “Do you like it?” Tonya said to Lexi.

Lexi said she did, but couldn’t hide her disappointment. Tonya said, “Maybe you’ll like this one better.” She got down on one knee and proposed with a 2.5 carat sparkler, like the one Lexi had on her Pinterest board. “A ring that would make any swishy gay man or Real Housewife of Winter Park swoon,” says Tonya.

The hardest part of wedding

planning for Tonya and Lexi, like with most couples, was sticking to the budget and narrowing down the guest list. “I was definitely the more stressed out of the two of us,” says Lexi. “Tonya was cool as a cucumber.” Having an expert wedding planner saved the couple from falling into the trap of spending too much on the wrong vendors. “The most important vendors to us were the photographer and the DJ. You can’t have a party without great music, and capturing the moments you have when it was all over was most important to me,” says Lexi.

At the April 8 ceremony, Tonya performed a song she wrote for Lexi called “I Already Do.” According to the couple, most of the wedding guests were in tears. As music is a big part of the couple’s life, they made mix CDs of all the important songs from their wedding day, and gave them to their guests as party favors.

Being married holds great significance for Lexi and Tonya.

“As a lesbian, I always wanted to get married, but never knew it would be possible. The marriage certificate doesn’t ‘prove’ anything, but it is a symbol that love is love and ours is recognized officially,” says Lexi.

lOCal birthdays

Tampa photographer and LGBTQ ally Poly costas, Parliament House pianist tim turner (June 15); Bodywork Massage and Day Spa owner roger Medrano, Town ‘n Country banker travis hilborne, Sarasota filmmaker and writer anthony Paull, Central Florida Sounds of Freedom president Joe kennedy (June 16); Metropolitan Business Association history chair ken kazmerski, former GaYbor Coalition board member John Gorman, St. Petersburg karaoke singer and artistic photographer J.J. respondek, former St. Petersburg resident and current New York actor Michael Silas (June 17);Watermark sales manager Danny Garcia (June 19); flight attendant andrew elder, Miracle of Love’s Mpowerment program coordinator lester burges (June 20); Tampa Bay limo chauffer Marty theriot, drag legend ange Sheridan, diehard Steelers fan Jimmy Guzic, Central Florida Softball League diva eric hams (June 21); Tampa’s Sweatshop proprietor and fitness guru christine Myers, St. Petersburg Yoga enthusiast/instructor andre Sur, Tampa Bay Elder Sister agatha Frisky (June 22); St. Pete drag performer ashlee t. bankx, Tampa Keller Realty star bill knecht, Treasure Island politico Gail caldwell (June 23); Tampa U.b.U. Salon artist Jeremy beauchamp, St. Pete WAVE-Award winning bartender Jeremy Fetters,Parliament House bar manager Danatetreault, St. Petersburg realtor and Watermark contributing photographer todd Fixler, Largo’s TinkerFluff photographer and Watermark contributor Paul kinchen, Arkham Assailant amanda hippensteel (June 24); Tampa Bay community activist Guadalupe vargas, Orlando Fringe Patron winner nanci “Mama b” boetto, The Ribbon Project founder and Embellish FX proprietor ben Johansen, St. Pete twirler Dan radwanski, Tampa outdoor enthusiast Scott buttelwerth (June 25); mother to the publisher Ginger bentz, roller derby team captain amber luu (June 26); Alaska farming intern christine rubino, Tampa Stageworks Theatre Artistic Director anna brennan (June 27); theme park performer teddy Fournier, Gulfport RV enthusiast terry cook, Bradenton’s Temple Beth El Rabbi harold caminker (June 28).

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!

—Holly V. Kapherr

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 LGBTQ life.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

49

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

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June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

53

uprisings

sign Your name

I cannot explain [President Donald Trump’s] behavior.

Jane Goodall could not explain his behavior. she could watch Trump for a decade and eventually conclude, ‘I don’t know, I think it’s a cocktail of insecurity, horniness, and malice. But which is in control of which is beyond me.

I miss the integrity and emotional intelligence of the apes.

—JOhN OLiveR ON DONALD tRump

equalitY now?

O

N JuNe 12, gOv. Rick scOtt FiNALLy tippeD his hAt to the LGBTQ community that has suffered his indifference for a year following Pulse. Scott, whose administration famously fought against gay marriage to the tune of millions of dollars, was not given an immediate reprieve from the LGBTQ community, however.

“We want to make sure that is in addition to, and not a substitute for, the real work of making sure that discrimination is not acceptable in the state of Florida, and he can do that with an executive order and a stroke of a pen,” Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith said at a press conference June 12, according to floridapolitics.com.

“We hope he does that, and we hope any candidate running for office that invokes the name of Pulse has the courage to name the victims and make clear their stance, not in platitudes, but in real promises.”

Florida had its chance (once again) to pass the Competitive Workforce Act this year, but it died.

54

in the name of love

I

N whAt cAN ONLy be DescRibeD as an awkward bit of musical scripting, U2 frontman Bono took the stage in Miami on June 11 to sing the praises of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.

Bono’s point was to highlight the senator’s assistance in HIV/AIDS funding in the face of President Donald Trump’s budget battles against overseas aid to the ONE Campaign which battles the disease.

Rubio, naturally, was there, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

“By people like your Senator Marco Rubio, who is fighting for this stuff and I want to thank him here tonight,” the singer said. “I want to thank him because it’s not good to see these people as I’ve seen them. These budget cuts by this president could undo the work, the great work of the United States of America. So send him a message. This country does incredible things when it works together ... as one.”

I

more guns, please

t DOesN’t tAke much tO RuN FOR gOveRNOR iN FLORiDA – well, not much spine; just a lot of cash, apparently – but you would always hope for a little bit of decorum to soften the blow of binary politicizing. Alas, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam doesn’t seem to worried about appearances as he launches his run for governor.

On June 12, a day of remembrance the world over, the gubernatorial hopeful took to a Bradenton stage to espouse the glory of the gun and increased access to it. We should all have concealed-carry licenses, he told an audience at Peach’s Restaurant.

“You can run government like a business and save money and deliver value to the people who make government possible through your hard-earned tax dollars,” Putnam preached. “And we’ve proven that. And Florida is number one in concealed weapons license holders – people lawfully exercising their Second Amendment rights.”

“There’s more to be done,” he repeated several times. Oh, please, no.

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

w

Billy Manes

hiLe mANy OF us weRe FLAppiNg AROuND in post-traumatic winds on the one-year mark of the Pulse shooting June 12, some of the weight of a contentious legislative session met the power of the governor’s pen. Governor Scott, who never met a gay person he didn’t ignore (except for when convenient), took to uncle Donald Trump’s Twitter ways and made it clear that he was thinking about the victims.

“Over the past year, the Orlando community has been challenged like never before,” his fingers tweeted. “I have been briefed by our law enforcement officials on this tragic incident and Ann and I are praying for the families who lost loved ones today. I ask all Floridians to pray for the families impacted by this senseless act of violence. I will remain in contact with the Orlando law enforcement community throughout the day as more information is made available.”

This, it should be noted, was released on June 5, a week before the memorials. Also, it doesn’t mention the LGBTQ community or the QLatinx community, nor does it mention Pulse.

It’s sanitized blather that could have been copy-and-pasted from a fleeting thought the year prior. Also, prayers are not enough.

On June 12, Scott posted a picture of himself, head bowed (near rainbow flags!), stating, “Today, all of Florida remembers and honors the 49 innocent lives lost one year ago at Pulse.” He would later name “Orlando, our state, the Hispanic community and the LGBTQ community” in a statement.

So all’s well that ends well, then. Except it isn’t, really. Rather than examine gun-control measures or the equality issue, Scott grabbed a pen and made guns even more of a menace. On Friday, June 9, Scott signed 16 measures into law, among which was SB 128, a bill backed by the National Rifle Association under the absurd notion that it was somehow cleaning up the Stand Your Ground law. Its authors, including Sen. Rob Bradley (R-Fleming Island), said the law would just shift the burden of proof from the defendant to the prosecutor in terms of whether the shooter had a right to shoot.

It’s all incredibly confusing, but, in effect, prosecutors are seeing this as another layer of protection for trigger-happy defendants. To seal the deal, Scott also signed SB 1052 which allows you to shoot anyone at any place where you have a so-called right to be.

Also of note, Scott signed a “religious expression” bill, SB 436, which will allow student assemblies to be led by Christian prayers (in force!), the Miami Herald reports. Religious expression is already protected under the U.S. Constitution, however, so this base baiting should be seen as exactly what it is: bullying.

Welcome to the playground.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

FIND YOUR FLORIDA Close to everything and yet a world away!

watermark Your LGBTQ life.

June 15 - June 28 , 2017 // Issue 24 .12

55

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