NOV | DEC 2018
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Yuletide Pride
John Waters headlines a host of holiday happenings
Making Magic The lesbian couple behind HausWitch and NowAge Travel
Musical Ambassadors Boston Gay Men’s Chorus goes to South Africa
Paradise Lost Remembering the iconic gay bar
A Champ for all Seasons Gay Games multiple medalist Steve Harrington
The Perfect Holiday Gift Another reason to get excited for the holidays
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“ A lavish exhibition … it’s a stunner.” —The Boston Globe
EMPRESSES Forbidden City of China’s
PEabody essex museum THROUGH FEBRUARY 10, 2019
Empresses of China’s Forbidden City is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum; the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and the Palace Museum, Beijing, China. The exhibition is made possible by generous support from Liu Dan; the Henry Luce Foundation; the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Bei Shan Tang Foundation; Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and the Lynch Foundation; Shirley Z. Johnson and Charles Rumph; the Richard C. von Hess Foundation; Anonymous; the AMG Foundation; the Coby Foundation, Ltd.; Eaton Vance; American Friends of the Shanghai Museum; the Blakemore Foundation; Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo; Quan Zhou and Dr. Xiaohua Zhang; Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund; Skinner, Inc.; the Ellen Bayard Weedon Foundation; Robert N. Shapiro; and Sandra Urie and Frank Herron. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum. James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes have generously supported additional exhibition programming.
Just five stops from Boston’s North Station!
Liu Dan E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation
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Drinking Tea from Yinzhen’s Twelve Ladies (detail). Court painters, Beijing, possibly including Zhang Zhen (active late 17th–early 18th century) or his son Zhang Weibang (about 1725–about 1775), Kangxi period, 1709–23, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, Palace Museum, Gu6458-7/12. © The Palace Museum.
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From The Publisher Although it is only November, this is the last issue of Boston Spirit in 2018. The next time you see the magazine in your mailbox we will have made it through the holidays and, chances are, it will be much colder outside! What a year it has been. Back in the spring we held our annual LGBT Executive Networking Night and heard from one of the most captivating speakers I have ever heard. Kristin Beck mesmerized the room with stories from her years as a US Navy SEAL and her transition from Christopher to Kristin. She was truly remarkable and capped off a great event. We are already looking forward to our 2019 Executive Networking Night. More recently we held our first-ever Boston Drag Idol event at Club Café. The event was a complete sell out and a very successful fundraiser for Victory Programs. Thanks once again to Verna Turbulence, all of our performers, our celebrity judges (Randy Price, Tiffani Faison and Ms. Massachusetts, Gabby Tavares) and everyone at Victory Programs and Club Café. Be sure to check out photos from the event in this issue (see page 92). Our biggest thanks, as always, are reserved for you. Over the course of nearly 14 years you, our friends and readers, have continued to support the magazine, our events and our business partners. Simply put, without you there would be no Boston Spirit magazine. Please know that I, and everyone here at the magazine, is truly grateful for your continued support and we pledge to continue to do all we can to deliver a great magazine to you six times per year as well as some fun events. We look forward to seeing all of you in 2019. Please have a safe and healthy holiday season and be sure to check in on some of your friends and neighbors who might be struggling at this time of year. A few minutes of your time can go a long way.
David Zimmerman Publisher
2 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Brian Gerhardson - Ameriprise
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Cambridge Savings Bank
COVER
Classic Harbor Lines
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Club Café
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Comcast
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Destination Salem
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Eastern Bank
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Fenway Health
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Peabody Essex Musem
COVER
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Warm hugs, warm hearts, warm wishes. Here’s to a holiday season that’s filled with joy.
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As We go To Press Forget about the blue wave. This past year, the New England wave on LGBT issues is bipartisan. While it’s popular to contend that LGBT issues are solely the province of Democratic politicians, in the past several months: A New England Republican governor signed into law a bill banning discrimination against transgender people. A New England Republican governor signed a bill into law protecting LGBTQ minors from conversion therapy. A New England Republican governor signed into law a bill requiring all singleuser public restrooms be gender neutral. A New England Republican governor signed into a first-in-the-nation law a bill that requires service providers to older adults have training in LGBT concerns. The first two laws are courtesy of New Hampshire’s GOP governor Chris Sununu. The third is the work of of Republican Vermont governor Phil Scott. And the last is from Massachusetts’s GOP Governor Charlie Baker. Regardless of whether we experience a blue wave this fall—because of deadlines I’m writing this before the November 6 election and you’re reading it after—our national political discourse continues to be divisively partisan. New England—ever
Contribute your opinion: editor@bostonspiritmagazine.com
4 | BOSTON SPIRIT
a national leader on LGBT issues—challenges us to rethink how we can all live and work together. New England gives us hope. That’s why my favorite piece in this issue of Boston Spirit is Rob Phelps’ compilation of the past year in good news. Rob pitched the idea a few months ago, in the midst of a wave of disheartening policy changes, such as reversing the policy that allowed lesbian and gay diplomats to bring their partners with them to the consulates where they served. Here in New England, Christine Hallquist became the first out, transgender person to be nominated as a gubernatorial candidate by a major party—the Democratic Party—in Vermont. (From where I’m writing, it doesn’t look like she’ll win; even though polls were shifting her way. Did she pull it off?) Also, in 2018, in New England, Connecticut nominated an out gay judge to be its Supreme Court Chief Justice. The effort fell short, but it’s the closest we’ve ever come to an LGBT person sitting in a state justice system’s top seat. Other great news of note that Rob found: The Boston Marathon made it clear that transgender women were welcome to run. And my favorite piece of news in my fave story is about Bryan Bishop,
Outvets founder and leader. He became the overseer for planning South Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. For those who witnessed the vitriol and hate that accompanied a fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court over the ability for LGBT veterans to fight in the popular parade, this was a stunning turnaround. From being spit on and having beer cans being thrown on gay people in 1993, from an infuriating rebuke by the US Supreme Court in 1995, and through years of activist efforts, comes pride of place—25 years later—at the front of the parade. Bryan Bishop should be person of the year. Wherever the new year takes you, please take with you the spirit of LGBT New England. May your 2019 be filled with the hope that bipartisan New England LGBT efforts have brought. May they increase your joy. May they bring peace. Happy New Year.
James Lopata Editor
The lobster
is
everything it’s cracked up to be.
www.legalseafoods.com NOV|DEC 2018 | 5
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‘Tis the Season …
Contents
The Businesswitches of Salem
Erica Feldman and Melissa Nierman are building community and encouraging radical acts of self-care with their modern metaphysical shop and tours
A Champ for All Seasons
NOV|DEC 2018 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 6
Competing in 10 Gay Games, gold-medalist Steve Harrington is in a league of his own
Spotlight
Hit List Nobody’s Fool ‘Tis the Season … Classically Queer Crazy, Sexy, Cool Left, Gay and Green From the Blogs Senior Spirit Are You Safe in Your Own Home? Newsmakers | Maine Newsmakers | Vermont Newsmakers | Rhode Island Newsmakers | New Hampshire Newsmakers | Connecticut
Feature
8 10 12 14 16 17 18 21 21 23 24 25 26 27
Paradise Lost
30
The Power of Music
32
Disco ball spins over last dance at iconic Cambridge nightclub Boston Gay Men’s Chorus takes its mission of inspiration and empowerment to South Africa
Yuletide Pride
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36
Yuletide Pride
38
Festive Accents
40
A few of our favorite things to do this holiday season Wearable art created by local women and sold at a South End boutique—perfect gifts to dress up the holidays and enjoy all year long
A Champ for All Seasons
First Love and Funny Underpants
74
Love Wins
76
Ring of Fire
78
The annual Boston Jewish Film Festival includes LGBTQ films ‘Boy Erased’ debunks myth of gay conversion Homophobia at heart of play about champion prizefighter Emile Griffith
Seasonal
Calendar
New England Events
82 83 84 86 87 88 89 90 92 94 95
96
Scene
Miraculous Music
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‘Fun in the Sun’ Sports Tea Dance MA LGBT Chamber of Commerce Launch White Party 2018 Harbor to the Bay 2018 Come Out and Celebrate Gala ‘Mama’s Boys’ FLAG Flag Football’s 20th Boston Drag Idol HistoryMaker Awards Spirit of Justice Awards Dinner
Moving from Madonna to Opera
70
Bright Light Bright Light
Best of All Possible News
50
A Style for All Seasons
56
In what seemed like a daily-bad-news year, positive LGBT stories prevailed Great gifts for guys—rugged, well crafted gear with a clean-line aesthetic and military look by a Boston-based designer couple
Culture
Boston’s Handel and Hayden Society’s “Messiah” is both old and new
‘Punk ballerina’ Karole Armitage helms ‘Schoenberg in Hollywood’ for the BLO
All About Bernstein
NEC exhibit, concerts pay tribute to legendary composer/conductor
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36
Classically Queer
72
All About Bernstein
Coda
The white-hot indie artist has an illuminating new album
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Ring of Fire
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GOOD
UNITES
Good makes a difference. Good promotes equality. Eastern Bank continues to support local LGBTQ communities and organizations, and has been named one of the best places to work by the Human Rights Campaign. Eastern Bank proudly gives 10% of its net income to local charities. To learn more please visit joinusforgood.com.
Join Us to Make a Difference at joinusforgood.com
SPOTLIGHT Trending STORY Scott Kearnan
Hit List NEWS, NOTES AND TO-DOS FOR EVERY GAY AGENDA commission through the Boston Project, its initiative to develop new, Boston-set works. Halberstadt’s upcoming work, “The Usual Unusual,” will follow the fictional story of True Colors, Boston’s last MJ queer bookstore, as it Halberstadt struggles to remain afloat. The Boston Project will culminate with staged readings in July 2019. More: mjhalberstadt.com
GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE to MJ Halberstadt, a Brookline, Massachusetts-based playwright. Halberstadt was one of three playwrights recently selected by SpeakEasy Stage Company to receive a
FIND OUT who will win the first cycle of “Boston Drag Gauntlet,” a live biweekly contest in the style of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Veteran local queens Kris Knievil and Violencia Exclamation Point
Boston Drag Gauntlet
Karen Akunowicz
are among the judges that will crown one drag winner out of nine contestants – like Harley Queen, Missy Steak, and Majenta Witha-J, whose glamazon-warrior ensemble helped her win the series’ very first challenge. See who steals the crown at the final shows on November 13 and November 27 (7:30 PM) at Jacques Cabaret.
SAY HELLO TO FOX & THE KNIFE, the new South Boston
restaurant from queer femme chef Karen Akunowicz, alum of the “Top Chef” TV franchise. Slated to open in December, it’s the first self-owned venture from Akunowicz, who earlier this year won the “Best Chef: Northeast” award from the James Beard Foundation, the Oscars of food, for her work at the South End’s Myers+Chang. Fox & the Wine is an “Italian neighborhood joint,” and its name nods to the loving moniker that Akunowicz’s spouse, LJ, gives to the pinkhaired. More: instagram.com/ foxandknife
CALL YOUR MOTHER . You’ll want to after checking out “Gay Sons and Mothers,” a multimedia project devised by psychotherapist Rick Miller, who has practices in Boston and on Cape Cod. Through interviews and other works, including a recent one-night-only cabaret at Club Café, Miller explores the complex relationships that exist between gay guys and their moms: the unique bonds that endure, the tensions, the joys. He’s lined up some big-name interviewees (like Dan Savage, Isaac Mizrahi and Armistead Maupin), but his discussions with average Joes are just as compelling. More: gaysonsandmothers.com POP A BOTTLE at Nathálie Wine Bar, a new lesbian-owned spot that opened just steps from Fenway Park. Haley Fortier’s second Boston bar (she opened Haley.Henry downtown in 2016) serves small plates like foie gras with corn bread and mushroom-broccoli casserole accompanied entirely by female-produced wines. And if you’re curious how one tastes, take note: The team will uncork any bottle if you commit to two glasses. The space looks fantastic, with floral wallpaper and gold mesh accents, most seating at the bar- and nongendered bathroom signs that simply read, “Everybody.” More: nathaliebar.com
PUBLISHER David Zimmerman EDITOR IN CHIEF James Lopata MANAGING EDITOR Robert Phelps [rob@bostonspiritmagazine.com] ART DIRECTOR Dean Burchell CONTRIBUTING LIFESTYLE EDITOR Scott Kearnan [lifestyle@bostonspiritmagazine.com] CONTRIBUTING ARTS EDITOR Loren King CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Alyssa Gillin, Tom Joyce, Natalie Nonken, Kim Harris Stowell CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Joel Benjamin COVER PHOTO Greg Gorman ON THE WEB [bostonspiritmagazine.com] TALK TO US [feedback@bostonspiritmagazine.com] EDITORIAL CONTACT [editor@bostonspiritmagazine.com] PUBLISHING AND SALES CONTACT [publisher@bostonspiritmagazine.com or 781-223-8538] THE FINE PRINT Boston
NOV|DEC 2018 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 6
Spirit magazine. A Division of Jake Publishing, LLC Published by Jake Publishing, LLC. Copyright 2004 by Jake Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without the written permission of Boston Spirit magazine. Neither the publishers nor the advertisers will be held responsible for any errors found in the magazine. The publishers accept no liability for the accuracy of statements made by advertisers. Publication of the name or photograph of any person, organization or business in this magazine does not reflect upon one’s sexual orientation in any way. Boston Spirit Magazine, 398 Columbus Ave. #395, Boston, MA 02116
8 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Boston Gay Men’s Chorus
JOIN “THE OVATION SOCIETY,”
a newly introduced level of support for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus. By giving at the $500 level, BGMC fans earn access to Society perks, namely advance access to preferred concerts seats — and at a 15-percent discount. All the better to see current season shows — from “Brass & Bows & Boys,” December’s holiday spectacular featuring a 10-piece brass orchestra, to “God Save the Queens,” a springtime revue inspired by English divas like Elton John and Adele. More: bgmc.org
Jamall Osterholm
CHECK OUT the fantastic fashions of Jamall Osterholm, a Providence-based designer who just showed his second collection at New York Fashion Week. Osterholm, whose works have been worn by stars like singer Ciara, created a Spring/ Summer 2019 menswear collection that feels futuristic and gender-subverting, exploring intersections of Black and queer identity through dramatic forms and sheer dresses. “What I’ve tried to do is take things like an oversized hoodie and change the silhouette and subvert it,” Osterholm told the British fashion magazine “i-D.” “I play with the cut and shape and, in a way, feminize it.” [x]
SPOTLIGHT Cuisine STORY Scott Kearnan
Nobody’s Fool TIFFANI FAISON’S NEW FENWAY TAPAS BAR, FOOL’S ERRAND, IS STANDING ROOM ONLY—LITERALLY From her star turns on the “Top Chef” TV franchise to her three buzzy and acclaimed Boston restaurants, Tiffani Faison has built her star-chef brand through kitchen talent and industry smarts. But even she wondered whether her latest project in the Fenway neighborhood, located at 1377 Boylston Street, a standing-room-only “adult snack bar” serving cocktails and gourmet finger foods, would work in a city better known for rowdy sports pubs than quirky tapas joints. “Obviously, it’s an idiom for something you shouldn’t do or attempt,” says Faison, who just opened the spot with her wife and business partner Kelly Walsh. “It’s really us taking the piss out of ourselves. A standing tapas bar is a tall order for Boston. It’s the keen understanding that the joke could very well be on us.” Surprise! Fool’s Errand is seriously great, hosting up to 30 walk-in guests at a time for drinks like the “Heart of an Artichoke,” a citrusy martini whose name nods to a Bette Davis line in “All About Eve,” and bites like ham and cheese croquettes, crisped potato slices topped with lobster gravy and uni, and smoked beef tongue sandwiches, all served from an open kitchen. The space is wrapped in homey décor with cheeky flourishes; it feels like you’re hanging at the coolest, chefled dinner party around.
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Potato Mille Feuille with Sour Cream & Royal Imperial Caviar PHOTO Emily Kan
Tiffani Faison PHOTO Mike Diskin [LEFT] Fools Errand Bar and Kitchen PHOTO Mike Diskin [RIGHT] Pumpkin Croquettes PHOTO courtesy of Fool’s Errand
“It’s as intimate as being in my own house, cooking for friends,” says Faison. What famous guests would she invite to her dream dinner party? Easy: Martin Luther King Jr., Harvey Milk, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Obamas — and Beyonce. Duh. As a vocal public advocate for progressive issues, though, Faison knows well that the holiday-time soirees can be tough for LGBTQ folks — you know, when they’re stuck chewing the fat with those distant family members who post conservative memes on Facebook. How to survive a dinner where the Christmas sweaters are worn with MAGA hats? “Don’t fight,” advises Faison. “Just rise above it. Arguing almost never changes folks’ perspective. If you have to interject, keep it personal. Talk about how 45’s actions make you feel as a person. As in, ‘When 45 does [blank], I feel as if I’m not seen, not considered fully human — and no one should have to feel that way.’” “Hearts and minds change politics, yelling and fighting don’t. Work on the hearts and the minds will follow.” [x]
foolserrandboston.com
T:3.556”
HOLIDAY FLAVOR Feeding folks is a fine way to spread love and cheer too. So after you stop by Fool’s Errand, host your own cocktail-and-bites bash with this recipe for its pumpkin croquettes. Great as a holiday appetizer or side dish too!
PUMPKIN CROQUETTES (Makes 10-12) INGREDIENTS
1 small pumpkin, peeled, seeded and diced (about 2 cups) 3 russet potatoes, peeled, steamed and put through a ricer or food mill 1 Tbsp. chopped garlic BREADING INGREDIENTS
2 cups of all-purpose flour 6 eggs, lightly beaten to make an egg wash
1 Tbsp. minced white onions ¼ cup vadouvan curry ½ lb. butter ¼ tsp. canola oil
2 cups of panko bread crumbs, pulsed in a food processor until they are half the original size
INSTRUCTIONS Heat a deep fryer or a shallow stock pot with canola oil to 350°F. In a wide sauce pan on high heat, add the butter and oil and cook until it turns dark brown—but not burnt. Add the onions and cook until just soft, 3–4 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the pumpkin and curry. Cook until the pumpkin is tender, 20–30 mins. Add the potatoes and mix together. Push through a fine mesh strainer and let cool completely. Spreading it out on a cookie sheet will help it to cool faster. In 3 shallow dishes, add the flour, egg wash and bread crumbs. Roll the croquette mixture into balls about the size of a golf ball. Dredge them in the flour, then the egg wash, and then the bread crumbs. Using a slotted spoon or strainer carefully drop the breaded croquets into the heated fry oil and cook until they are golden brown on the outside and hot on the inside (insert a cake tester into the center of the croquet to test if it is hot).
M A K E YO U R H O L I D AY SHOPPING E F F O R T L E S S. The holiday season is the perfect time for a shopping getaway. Find inspiring gifts for everyone on your list. The Boston Marriott Copley Place, which is connected to over 200 shops and restaurants and just a few blocks away from Newbury Street and the South End, is offering a Dine & Shop Package that includes: • Deluxe accommodations • $50 Simon Mall American Express Gift Card (one gift card per night) • Breakfast for two • Overnight valet parking for one vehicle
TO B O O K YO U R D I N E & S H O P P A C K A G E , C A L L 6 1 7. 2 3 6 . 5 8 0 0 O R V I S I T C O P L E Y M A R R I O T T. C O M . BOS BOSTON MARRIOTT RIO COPLEY PLACE 110 HUNTINGTON UNT TO AVENUE BOSTON, MA 02116 BOST 617.236.5800 00 COPLEYMARRIOTT.COM EYM O
©2018 Marriott iott International, Inc.
SPOTLIGHT Gift Guide STORY Scott Kearnan
‘Tis the Season …
LGBT-FRIENDLY TIPS TO HELP CHECK OFF THAT NAUGHTYAND-NICE GIFT LIST ‘Tis the season to drive yourself crazy while knocking out your holiday shopping list. Fret not. We’ve gathered together a half-dozen options for anyone on your “nice” (or for that matter, “naughty”) list. And what’s more—you’ll be supporting LGBTQ-associated artists, businesses and organizations in the process. During the busy holiday season, the best gift you can give someone is time. So support a great cause while also saving your loved ones from having to make one more thing for Thanksgiving. Buy them an apple, pecan, pumpkin or sweet potato pie through Community Servings’ Pie in the Sky program, an annual fundraiser for the multiservice nonprofit based in meal delivery and nutrition education for those living with critical and chronic illness, including HIV/AIDS. Over 100 Boston-area bakers prepare the treats, which can be picked up at over 100 convenient locations. ($30; servings.org)
Pie in the Sky
Second Sun
Gift-giving is a beautiful thing. Hyperconsumerism? Not so much. That’s why we love Second Sun Creatives, the work of queer Jamaica Plain artist Rae Rimm. Rimm reuses “vintage and expired” items—antique watch faces, tiny glass vials, bottle caps and other found objects—to create pendant necklaces, earrings and other adorable wearables that are truly one of a kind. And best of all, you’re breathing new life into an existing treasure—instead of letting it head to the trash. Rimm sells mostly through local craft markets, but also accepts orders through her Instagram page. (Prices range; instagram.com/secondsuncreatives) Modern life is stressful, to say the least. Some of us can’t even watch the news right now without spiking our blood pressure into the danger zone. First: breathe deep. Then: stock up on herbal medicines from Tiny Pony Apothecary, a southern Vermont-based maker of small-batch elixirs made from wild-harvested plants. Tinctures include the “Fight Back! Acute Immune Formula,” imbued with osha
12 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Tiny Pony Apothecary
Puzz Pottery
honey and Echinacea, “Ewes Snooze Sleeping Potion,” made with hops and passionflower, and “Everyday Resilience Formula,” an oats and lemon balm-based tonic “inspired by the resilience of our queer and feminist communities. ($14; tinyponyapothecary. com) Every holiday dinner party needs a distinctive pop of personality—and frankly, place settings of charmless, mass-produced dinnerware just don’t cut it. So share the gift of gorgeous handcrafted works by Puzz Pottery. Gay Connecticut-based potter Jon Puzzuoli creates stunning works, and not just plates and bowls. You might find a crystalline-glazed porcelain vase, beautifully painted white stoneware mugs with 18-karat gold luster accents— even lamps and chandeliers. There’s something special at every price point, and Puzzuoli sells directly through his Instagram and Facebook accounts. (Prices range; facebook.com/jon.puzzuoli; instagram.com/jpuzz)
The Tailored Home
Looking for beautiful home furnishings to dress up your love nest? Turn to The Tailored Home, a Connecticutbased business from partners Jhon Ortiz and Scott Falciglia, with stores in Westport and Greenwich, plus online. Their team of talented artisans create stylish seating, from swivel chairs to bar stools, contemporary coffee tables, mod-art mirrors, and much more. They also specialize in window treatments, whether you’re looking for Roman shades or delightful drapes. These interior treatments are perfect bespoke adornments that any home design-loving recipient will want to find under the tree. (Prices range: thetailoredhomect. com)
Designs by Sarge
Want to help your favorite bear deck out his den? Look to the pillows and other custom-sewn goods of Designs by Sarge. Maine-based maker Michael Sargent switches up prints and colors to create plush décor with handcut, appliquéd images—and his Bear Pride designs have been a particular hit at Ogunquit and P’town shows. (He’s also worked on costumes and props for the Maine Gay Men’s Chorus.) But his online shops offer many more cozy-cabin-ready designs, from Pine Tree State references (plaid lobsters, anyone?) to saucy slogans (“Woof!”) and rainbow Christmas stockings, plus much more. ($30–$70; facebook. com/designsbysarge; instagram.com/ iamsarge) [x]
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SPOTLIGHT Music STORY Scott Kearnan
Classically Queer QUORUM BOSTON PROVES SERIOUS MUSIC CAN BE FUN, ACCESSIBLE AND OFTEN HISTORICALLY LGBT Quorum Boston was definitely not the first local chorus to perform Handel’s “Messiah.” But it may well have been the first to perform it in drag. That’s because the recently-formed LGBTQ vocal ensemble is dedicated to undoing the erasure of queer artists in the choral music community. Quorum offered its summer concert, “Drag Messiah,” as an opportunity to highlight “a queer composer who participated in drag culture” while raising awareness and funds for Freedom for All Massachusetts, a coalition behind the “Yes on 3” campaign to retain public accommodations protections for trans folks at the Bay State ballot box on November 6. And in December, the group will perform concerts featuring varied, exciting works exclusively by living queer composers. They’re amplifying important and underrepresented voices. “In most music history and theory classes an aspiring musician would be required to take, most of the composers talked about are white, cis, and straight, and if they do mention a composer who actually is queer, such as Handel or Schubert, they just don’t mention it,” says Quinn Gutman, a composer and soprano. “Therefore, many queer musicians are left to believe that there is no place for them in the classical music world, and many straight [and/or] cis musicians are left completely unaware of that diversity.” Gutman discovered a “second family” in Quorum since moving to Boston in June, one where they don’t feel like the “token non-male or token queer” in composer communities often dominated by straight, cis men. They are writing a piece for the show called “What is G-d?”, which interrogates conventionally gendered notions of a higher being. Works by a dozen other queer composers are represented in December’s show, including “The Human Portrait” by Rafael Natan, about the quest to have one’s authentic self be recognized by society, and “Show Me the Way,” by Sam Jones, a sweet, hymnlike composition about personal insecurity and the reluctance to ask for help. There are nearly 30 members in Quorum, representing many diverse and intersecting identities: nonbinary, genderqueer, gay, bisexual and many more.
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“I’m a choir director by trade, and I thought it would be great to have a group of queer people singing works by queer composers,” says Lorraine Fitzmaurice, who founded Quorum last year. “There’s a lot of erasure of queer composers in classical music history. It’s basically a bunch of dead old white guys. I thought we could bring things into the 20th century and also raise the profile of living queer composers.”
inti figgis-vizueta
“Our approach is to do serious music in a way that is approachable and fun, and shows that there doesn’t have to be an elitist block to this music. There’s a culture around this kind of music that makes it inaccessible, and that’s something we’re trying to break down.” In the process, Quorum—whose name refers to a principle of functional, egalitarian representation—exposes audiences to both contemporary queer artists and historic connections to the LGBTQ+ experience in classical and new music genres where those stories have often gone untold. That they are left out of history books is sometimes out of negligence, and sometimes out of hostility, says Fitzmaurice; for example, the Stalinist regime’s oppression of gay people did much to quash acknowledgement of the sexuality of Tchaikovsky. But even today, this erasure persists— especially, says Fitzmaurice, in classical music organizations that often perform in churches, and may rely largely on the patronage of older donors. “I’m pretty new to the choral world. I avoided it for a long time because of the homophobic and transphobic overtones I felt from many church spaces,” says inti figgis-vizueta, Quorum’s first composer-inresidence in its 2017-’18 season. They are creating a piece for December’s concert, “you are your body,” informed by their identity as a queer member of the Quechua diaspora, indigenous peoples of Latin America, and they see Quorum’s mission as a vital one that fits into a longer history of art as activism—and opens doors to those too frequently shut out. “Communal musicmaking has a long history in protest and civil rights movements, and consciously manifesting those values in our practice is itself a politicized and radical act that empowers us as individuals and all our intersections of community,” says figgis-vizueta. “As a queer, indigenous composer of color, Quorum gave me a space
Quinn Gutman
Sam Jones to collaboratively create and manifest ideas that couldn’t and didn’t survive in my graduate school studies. Choral and classical music’s history of white cishet patriarchy and required levels of intellectual [and/or] cultural capital often dissuades marginalized folk from exploring and engaging.” “Quorum was a space where we all could say, [expletive] that.” Quorum will perform a free concert Monday, December 10, at the Josephine A. Fiorentino Community Center, located at123 Antwerp Street in Allston MA, and (tickets on a sliding scale) Thursday, December 13, at First Church Cambridge, 11 Garden Street in Cambridge. [x]
quorumboston.com.
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SPOTLIGHT Performance Art STORY Scott Kearnan
“ When people are oppressed, they’re going to want to let their freak flags fly. After Trump got elected, we had a lot more people in the clubs. There was a feeling of togetherness, that we are a community and that we have each other’s backs. ”
Violencia Exclamation Point. PHOTO Helix Pinecomb Photos
Crazy, Sexy, Cool MEET BOSTON SPIRIT DRAG IDOL’S HARD-WORKING WINNER VIOLENCIA EXCLAMATION POINT Crazy. Sexy. Cool. She’s one of the busiest drag performers in the Boston scene. So, it’s appropriate that Violencia Exclamation Point’s performance of “Red Light Special,” a hit song from TLC’s 1994 album “CrazySexyCool,” helped Violencia win the very first “Drag Idol” competition recently hosted by Boston Spirit at Club Café. “It’s one of my go-to songs in drag,” says Violencia. Rather than lip sync, she sang the sexy, let’s-get-it-on jam live—and performed a naughty striptease. Then again, she has some practice. “I had that album in second grade, which was pretty scandalous at the time!” Emceed by veteran queen Verna Turbulence, “Drag Idol” raised over $5,000 for Victory Programs, a multiservice nonprofit combating issues like homelessness, addiction and HIV/AIDS. Violencia’s performance wowed the local celeb judges, “Top Chef” alum Tiffani Faison, WCVB anchor Randy Price and Miss Massachusetts Gabriela Taveras. And the other competing queens—Lakia Mondale, Complete Destruction, Amanda Playwith, Ryanna Woods and Petty B. Davis—all strut their stuff with style and sass.
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But Violencia’s inimitable approach to drag ticked every box. She’s crazy—in the best way. Violencia’s greatest inspirations are cult figures, like filmmaker John Waters, and gender-screwing movies and musicals like “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” If you’re looking for faithful recreations of a Britney Spears video, look elsewhere. Violencia is an artsier, more subversive kind of queen, whether she’s performing a fake-blood-soaked version of Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart” or interjecting a demonically dancebale remix of Madonna’s “Holy Water” with profane lines from “The Exorcist.” “Don’t get me wrong, I love Beyonce and Britney—but I never connected with them as much as I did with queer art, the freaky stuff,” says Violencia. “When I saw the images in movies like ‘Hedwig’ and ‘Rocky Horror,’ I was like, ‘These are my people.’” She’s sexy—because she embraces the full spectrum of her identity. Violencia (known out of drag as David White) grew up in Derry, New Hampshire, came out at age 14 and started hitting gay bars at age 18, catching drag shows at Breezeway Pub and the now-closed Club 313 in nearby Manchester. Within a few years, she decided to do drag
—Violencia Exclamation Point herself, and over 10 years of performing, her immersion in her art form has helped her to identify as nonbinary (using both she/her and they/them pronouns). “Because I dress up almost every single day, it made me think, ‘Am I a man? Am I a woman? I feel like I’m gender nonconforming,’” says Violencia. She certainly spends most of her time in her drag identity, hosting recurring nights like #NoFilter at Jacques Cabaret (first Mondays and third Fridays of the month), All Star Mondays at Machine and Hot Mess Sundays at Candibar. And she’s cool—because she’s doing her part to push the LGBTQ community forward, including staging performances in support of the “Yes On 3” effort to protect transgender rights in Massachusetts at the ballot box on November 6. Drag is entertainment, but it’s also a political act—one that feels especially powerful in today’s climate. “When people are oppressed, they’re going to want to let their freak flags fly,” says Violencia. “After Trump got elected, we had a lot more people in the clubs. There was a feeling of togetherness, that we are a community and that we have each other’s backs.” Spoken like a true idol. [x]
Instagram.com/violenciaexclamationpoint
SPOTLIGHT Books STORY Scott Kearnan
Left, Gay and Green ALLEN YOUNG’S RICHLY REFLECTIVE, POLITICALLY CANDID MEMOIR In the era of identity politics, an autobiography titled “Left, Gay & Green: A Writer’s Life” might sound like a setup for a particularly proselytizing screed. But author Allen Young’s new 500-page tome is far more contemplative than contentious. It is candidly political and highly personal, a robust self-examination of a fascinating man who can’t be easily categorized. Indeed, Young has inhabited many roles. He is a pioneering journalist and an established activist, the son of Communist parents and the patriarch of a Western Massachusetts commune. He is also, at 77, deeply reflective on what he has learned in a life that found him on the front lines of many cultural movements, from postStonewall gay liberation to Vietnam War protests to the back-to-the-land counterculture of the 1970s. The rich depth of Young’s self-reflection is rare and special, but the author is quick to connect it to elements of community. “I think I’ve always been introspective,” says Young. “I think gay men or people in any kind of minority situation are always examining their inner self. In some ways, you’re always asking yourself, ‘How do I fit in?’” To answer those types of existential questions, Young looks back to his beginnings on a Catskills poultry farm, where the self-described “red diaper baby” was raised by Communist parents who were, he writes, “strikingly middle class in their values.” Their son wound up well-educated, earning degrees from Columbia and Stanford, and spending several years in South America on a Fulbright scholarship. He subsequently gave up a reporter’s job at the Washington Post to devote himself to the underground press, amassing bylines with Fag Rag, Gay Community News and The Advocate, among others. Young eventually authored 14 books, including “Gays Under the Cuban Revolution,” an indictment of the anti-gay Castro regime, and
co-edited the groundbreaking anthology “Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation” with lesbian scholar Karla Jay. Young’s autobiography covers plenty of gay-related ground and traces his incremental steps out of the closet, a journey shared by countless gay men of his generation. But it also delves into many more twists and turns in the author’s life, including his arrests related to the antiwar and civil rights movements, and for growing marijuana. In 1973, Young and four other men founded the 94-acre Butterworth Farm in Royalston, Massachusetts, a utopianlike vision of a rural, self-sufficient gay community. Though several factors kept Butterworth from enjoying its intended longevity, including the decimation wrought by the AIDS epidemic, it represented to many the radical potential of the era in which it was born. Young, the last survivor of the original cohort, still lives there today. He is semi-retired, but continues to contribute a weekly column to the “Athol Daily News” and remains involved with Democratic politics and environmental conservation groups. Young’s reputation as a writer and activist is well-established, and “Left, Gay
& Green” has received ringing endorsements from names like Eric Foner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and Stan Rosenberg, former Massachusetts senate president. But the history in its pages should fascinate even those unfamiliar with the author’s work, including new generations of progressive activists who can learn much from the experiences of those that came before. “It’s important to know where you came from,” says Young. “It’s helpful to shed light on how people like you struggled and lived in the past. You have to know about the people who came before so you don’t go backwards.” And right now, says Young, we’re sliding. “He’s vulgar and mean-spirited, and the undoing of leftist policies and anti-science mentality is really disturbing,” says Young of the Trump administration. But true to form, this free-thinker says he can find himself “disillusioned by dogmatic approaches” and extremism on the left and the right. Despite its title, “Left, Gay & Green” is actually an insightful look at a noble nonconformist who defied neat labels and, though always anchored in his progressive politics, has allowed his identity and outlook to evolve. [x]
“Left, Gay & Green: A Writer’s Life” is available now on amazon. com. Allen Young will appear at a book talk on November 1 from 4 to 6 p.m. at UMass Amherst (W.E.B. Du Bois Library, 25th floor). On November 6 at noon, Young will be hosted by the Brown Bag Speaker series from the Rainbow Lifelong Learning Institute Boston, held at the First Paris Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington, Massachusetts.
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SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps
From the Blogs NEWS HIGHLIGHTS FROM BOSTONSPIRITMAGAZINE.COM According to a September 12 report in the Boston Globe: “Researchers at the Williams Institute, a think tank focused on gender identity at the UCLA School of Law, examined restroom crime reports in Massachusetts cities of similar size and comparable demographics and found no increase in crime and no difference between cities that had adopted transgender policies and those that had not. The data were collected for a minimum of two years before a statewide antidiscrimination law took effect in 2016. ...
Meghan Duggan [RIGHT] and Gillian Apps. PHOTO Instagram
OLYMPIC GOLD-MEDAL HOCKEY RIVALS WED Whether or not they chose to exchange rings is one of many details from their wedding they’re currently keeping to themselves, but this pair of hockey champions is now sharing four Olympic gold medals between them. In a late September ceremony in Pownal, Maine, US Olympic gold medalist Meghan Duggan married her rival on the ice, threetime Olympic gold medalist Gillian Apps of Team Canada. The pair tied the knot at a private occasion—spurning offers from People, Brides and all other media to cover or even request comments about the event, according to Duggan’s press agent. Nevertheless, their Instagram site went viral where Duggan posted now widely circulating photos and called the occasion “the most incredible day of my entire life” with Apps reporting “nothing but smiles after this amazing weekend.” Duggan, born in Danvers, Massachusetts, where she also grew up, now plays for the Boston Pride in the National Women’s Hockey League. Apps played on Dartmouth College’s Big Green women’s ice hockey team and the Brampton Thunder of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. According to the Boston Globe: “Duggan, 31, and Apps, 34, both forwards, are both three-time Olympians and faced off at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, with Apps’s squad getting the better of Duggan’s side. Apps also won gold at the 2006 Turin
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Games. Duggan finally got her Olympic gold earlier this year when the Americans defeated the Canadians in PyeongChang. The US had lost the previous four Olympic gold medal games to Canada. “Apps, who played for Dartmouth College from 2002-07, served as an assistant coach for the Boston College women’s hockey during the 2016-17 season while Duggan played for the NWHL’s Boston Pride, her current team. Apps left her position at BC to enroll at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. “A few of Duggan’s Team USA teammates were bridesmaids in the ceremony, including forward Brianna Decker, defender Kacey Bellamy, and forward Erika Lawler.” Notes Outsports: “We’ve seen this North American hockey marriage before, with American Julie Chu and Canadian Caroline Oullette. Oullette has four Olympic golds, while Chu has three Olympic silvers and a bronze. Earlier this year NWHL players Anya Battaglino and Madison Packer also got engaged. “All four of these women have multiple World Championships.”
UCLA STUDY REFUTES PUBLIC SAFETY THREATS BY TRANSGENDER ACCESS LAW A research study out of UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute finds no link between public transgender bathroom access and crimes that occur in bathrooms.
“The peer-reviewed study, published in Sexuality Research and Social Policy, focused on the years before Massachusetts adopted a statewide law prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations based on gender identity. Prior to that time, select municipalities had adopted local ordinances that had a similar effect: allowing transgender women into ladies’ rooms and transgender men into men’s rooms.” “Massachusetts was like this perfect petri dish,” said Rachel Dowd, a spokeswoman for the Williams Institute. “Different localities started to adopt it, and there was enough that allowed us to look at crime statistics over two years. And right as we were wrapping up our research, Massachusetts passed the statewide law.”
GOVERNOR CHARLIE BAKER DELIVERS KEYNOTE AT LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS ANNUAL DINNER Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker delivered a keynote speech at the Log Cabin Republicans annual “Spirit of Lincoln ‘18” dinner in Washington, DC in early October. He joined Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, both blue-state Republican governors. Reported the Boston Globe, “The speech at the Log Cabin Republicans annual “Spirit of Lincoln” dinner marked an unusual foray for Baker on the national Republican stage. But he was in friendly territory. Hundreds applauded his record on gay rights before he took the stage at the Mayflower Hotel.” Prior to Baker’s speech, Baker spokesperson Terry MacCormack told the Globe the governor looked forward to sharing “his proud
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and that’s why our family is incredibly grateful that Massachusetts led the way in ensuring marriage equality in 2004. It is one of the factors that has driven my longtime support for marriage equality and other policies that help the LGBTQ community,” Baker told the Rainbow Times in an interview following the event. [Editor’s note: This issue of Boston Spirit went to press just before the Midterm Elections.]
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. PHOTO courtesy NPR
Orlando Del Valle
record of bipartisan leadership and support for the LGBT community.” He pointed to Baker “signing an amicus brief in favor of nationwide marriage equality, boosting opportunities for LGBT-owned businesses working with state government,” and signing a law that allows people to not only use the restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity but also protects transgender people from discrimination in all public accommodations from hotels and restaurants to doctor’s offices, shops and subways. “As governor, I’m grateful that our Commonwealth is a national model for tolerance and equality. But for me, support for the LGBTQ community is about more than just politics—it’s personal. My brother has been married to his husband for over ten years,
HISTORY PROJECT HONORS DEL VALLE, LGBT ELDERS OF COLOR Boston LGBTQ community leader Orlando Del Valle received the 2018 HistoryMaker Award from The History Project of Boston. De Valle was honored at the organization’s annual fête in October at the St. Botolph Club. “Through decades of leadership and dedication,’ noted a History Project press release, “Orlando Del Valle has had a profound and lasting effect on Boston’s LGTBQ community—from the founding of Club Antorcha, a social club for Latino gay men, to his work with Cambridge Health Alliance, Positive Directions, La Alianza Hispana, and the Latino Health Network/Institute. Orlando
has also played an integral role in The History Project’s efforts to collect, preserve, and share LGBTQ history. Please join us in honoring an advocate and leader who has worked tirelessly to support and connect people, and to preserve the stories of our community. Also receiving accolades at the event was LGBT Elders of Color, which received the 2018 Lavender Rhino Award for outreach work “to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older adults of color for the purpose of building community through social engagement events, creative programming, and providing needed resources for health care and aging services.” [x]
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SPOTLIGHT Community STORY Bob Linscott
Senior Spirit
Are You Safe in Your Own Home? NEW MASSACHUSETTS LAW ENSURES COMPETENT HOME CARE FOR LGBT SENIORS Every one of us is just a hip fracture away from losing our independence. This is a vision of the future that no one wants to imagine. It’s hard to comprehend that overnight you would need to rely on someone else to cook, clean or bathe you. But it is inconceivable to imagine that in 2018 the person being sent to care for you might be homophobic or intolerant if they found out you were LGBT.
Kurt Cybulski. PHOTO Bob Linscott
Like most people, Kurt Cybulski never imagined he would need care providers. Cybulski was a young gay man living in Boston and working as graphic designer. On his 39th birthday, just as he was dreading turning 40, he had a brain aneurism that left him completely paralyzed on his left side. Cybulski spent the next three months at New England Rehab until he could learn to sit up, feed, swallow and use a wheelchair.
Despite needing to wear a bike helmet at all times, Cybulski was released into his parents’ care. After several years Cybulski yearned to be on his own again. He moved back into his apartment, but because he could only stand for limited amounts of time, he soon found it very difficult to clean, do laundry or cook anything. He existed on sandwiches and his apartment fell into utter disrepair. Eventually the demands of daily life became too much for someone with this kind of paralysis and Cybulski applied for home care through Mass Rehab. Although Cybulski was never able to return to work he managed to get by at home for many years thanks to the services he was receiving from Mass Rehab. Unfortunately, his eligibility for those services ended when
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he turned 60 and he was transitioned to a local elder service provider for home care. A Jamaican woman was sent to Cybulski’s home and began to do his cleaning and laundry. The two developed a wonderful relationship and she did things that went above and beyond her role as a cleaner. She would often say, “This is my job to care for you, so you just sit back and let me help you.” They would talk and laugh as she cleaned. Because Cybulski went to church regularly he wasn’t bothered that her favorite things to talk about were the miracles that Jesus brought into her life. Everything changed one day when the cleaner was dusting a bookshelf and picked up a framed photo of naked men wrestling that Cybulski’s friend had bought for him in Provincetown. Her tone changed and she even looked at him differently. She started saying things under her breath and when Cybulski asked her to speak up she told him that God hates gays. Cybulski was horrified as she went on to say even crueler things. The following week she told him that people with AIDS were evil and the disease was punishment from God for their sins. That was the final straw, Cybulski had lost a number of dear friends to AIDS and hearing this was unbearable.
Cybulski felt that he was being violated in his own home and was ≠≠left feeling alone and attacked. He reached out to the cleaner’s boss, shared what happened, and was told if he didn’t want her to say these things he would have to tell her himself. The following week Cybulski mustered up every bit of courage and confronted his cleaner. He said he had been through a lot of challenges in his life and that his home was his only safe and happy place. He would not tolerate hearing these things in his own home. For several weeks after that confrontation the cleaner came, but did not utter a word to Cybulski. She cleaned in silence and left the apartment. Eventually she said it was too difficult to park in that area and she would no longer be returning. After this, Cybulski went through a string of unsuccessful cleaners and has now discontinued his contract with that elder service provider. He is currently in the process of seeking a private company, which is going to cost him considerably more money than the state subsidized services. The bottom line for Cybulski: he wants to feel safe in his own home. Kurt Cybulski’s story underscores the urgency in having home care providers who are trained in LGBT cultural competency.
This is the heart of a new bill that was recently signed into law on July 26, 2018 by Governor Charlie Baker. It is landmark legislation that marks Massachusetts once again as the first and only state in the nation with such a law. But it wasn’t easy. This is legislation that has been in the making for nearly 10 years. This bill was finally signed into law this year thanks to backing from the Massachusetts Commission on LGBT Aging that made the bill a priority along with invaluable support from legislators like Rep Sarah Peake (D, Barnstable), Rep Liz Malia, (D, Jamaica Plain), the bill’s cosponsor, and House Ways and Means Chair, Rep Jeffrey Sanchez (D, Jamaica Plain). The bill requires the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) to develop a training program that will eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression and will improve access to aging services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender elders and caregivers. This training will be mandated for all agencies who receive funding or certification from EOEA, which includes all aging service access points, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and state-funded home care providers. [x]
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SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps
Newsmakers | Maine
News from the Pine Tree State
bisexual or transgender employees. That law, they claim, was intended to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity. … Laws in 20 states, including Maine, ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
BACKLASH FOR SENATOR COLLINS’ KAVANAUGH VOTE
Pat Peard. PHOTO courtesy Bernstein Shur Governor Paul LePage. PHOTO AP/Robert Bukaty
UNIVERSITY OF MAINE LAW SCHOOL GIFTED 50K IN NAME OF LGBT ‘JUSTICE WARRIOR’ Portland-based law firm Bernstein Shur has gifted the University of Maine School of Law $50,000 in honor of its retiring shareholder and LGBT activist Pat Peard. The money is to be used in Peard’s name to support “areas of greatest need at the law school” and in keeping with the mission of Peard. Peard, who earned her law degree from the school in 1988, is described throughout the community as a “justice warrior” and tireless advocate for LGBT rights, according to a press release from the firm announcing the gift. According to New England Business Media, Peard “led the more than 10-year fight to include sexual orientation as a protected category to the Maine Human Rights Act and also worked on numerocampaigns to legalize same sex marriage.”
GOVERNOR LEPAGE’S PARTING SHOT Outgoing Maine Governor Paul LePage fired another parting shot at the LGBT community by asking the US Supreme Court to rule that companies can fire workers based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Earlier this week, LePage signed onto an amicus brief filed by 15 other right-wing officials asking SCOTUS to overturn an appeals court decision against a Michigan funeral home that fired a transgender employee. He joined Republican governors of Kentucky and Mississippi, and attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. According to an August 27 Portland Press Herald report, the brief claims “that Congress did not intend for the ban on sex discrimination in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to cover bias against lesbian, gay,
“In the wake of this news, there is only one course of action,” wrote Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a HRC press statement. “The millions of Americans who have fought a valiant struggle against this despicable nominee must make their voices heard in November and beyond by electing lawmakers who will stand up for our rights rather than sell us out.” Griffin, of course, was reacting to Senator Susan Collins’ support for Trump’s latest SCOTUS appointee Brett Kavanaugh. According to the Washington Blade, “In years past, the Human Rights Campaign has endorsed Collins when she was up for re-election and faced Democratic challengers because of her support for LGBT rights initiatives, including ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. It’s hard to see how that support will continue in the Kavanaugh vote.” However, as the Blade points out, “Marriage equality is but one LGBT rights issue. Other LGBT-related cases that may come to Supreme Court with Kavanaugh on the bench including litigation challenging President Trump’s transgender military ban, whether federal civil laws against sex discrimination applies to LGBT people and whether “religious freedom” affords a right for individuals and businesses to discriminate against LGBT people.” [x]
“I’ve known Pat since the very beginning of her legal career,” said Pat Scully, CEO at Bernstein Shur. “In fact, I interviewed her when she was a 2L at Maine Law and brought her on to work as a summer associate. I knew from our first encounter that she would make a great Bernstein Shur lawyer.” “I am honored to accept this $50,000 gift from Bernstein Shur in honor of alumna Pat Peard,” said Danielle Conway, dean of the University of Maine School of Law. “Pat demonstrates how a lawyer should combine leadership and a commitment to equity to serve individuals, the community and the legal profession. She is the kind of lawyer-leader whom we strive to emulate in pursuing excellence in our teaching, service and scholarship at the University of Maine School of Law.” Senator Susan Collins after the Kavanaugh vote. PHOTO courtesy NPR
SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps
Newsmakers | Vermont Green Mountain State Update
along Church Street Marketplace in Burlington for the 15th annual Fire Truck Pull. The combined efforts of truck-pulling participants and over 900 donors raised $73,360.60 this year in support of Outright’s programs for LGBTQ youth, according to an Outright press release. Allison Mindel, mother of a son who transitioned three years ago, the metaphors of the team work and truck pull are perfectly clear, as she told the MyChamplainValley reporter.
Christine Hallquist and friends
NO MATTER THE OUTCOME, HALLQUIST MAKES HISTORY At the time this issue of Boston Spirit went to press the Midterm Elections were yet to take place. But regardless of the outcome of the governor’s race, Christine Hallquist not only became the first transgender gubernatorial candidate to be nominated by a major US political party thanks to Vermont Democrats, but as of early October received endorsements from major politicians including Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts, former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama. “I think they’re definitely going to help Vermonters vote for me, because they’re people who have been around and respected,” Hallquist told the Burlington Free Press. “Certainly the Obama endorsement is one that brings tears to my eyes.”
FIRE TRUCK PULL RAISES FUNDS FOR OUTRIGHT YOUTH PROGRAMS It took for more than a dozen teams to pull a fully loaded, 35,000-pound fire truck 30 feet
Outright Fire Truck Pull
from the Counseling And Psychiatry Services will work on site at the Center for Cultural Pluralism where Prism shares space with other groups at no extra expense to the center, according to Jerman. “Jerman said the name and other changes showed that the center and the university are growing and changing to meet the needs of the students right now.”
“He had a really hard time, about 18 months of really severe mental health issues around that time,” Mindel said. “Outright literally saved his life, the programs they offer and the experiences that he had were transformative, no pun intended.” To find out more about Outright’s programs—or get an early start signing up to participate in the 16th annual fire-truck pull on Saturday, September 29, 2019, go to outrightvt.org.
NEW NAME AND UPGRADES FOR UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT’S LGBTQA CENTER The center formally known as LGBTQA is now called the Prism at the University of Vermont. “The decision to change the name of the center was based on years of student feedback. The new name is meant to be inclusive,” Kate Jerman, the center’s director told the Burlington Free Press, which went on to report: “This year along with a new name, the center reshuffled space for a bigger, more welcoming student lounge. And therapists
COLLEGE ATHLETE JOINS NCAA DIVERSITY-INCLUSION SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN Kudos to University of Vermont track and field athlete Will Lynch for participating in a National Collegiate Athletic Association social media campaign to spread the word about diversity and inclusion. In early October, the NCAA’s Office of Inclusion encouraged athletes, coaches and college and university athletic departments to share on social medial what makes them “More than an Athlete.” Lynch was one of eight college athletes who shared his LGBTQ identity, thereby encouraging others to celebrate their own identities, simply by posting “I am an LGBTQ+ athlete - @UVMTrack’s Will Lynch. #NCAAInclusion” along with a campaign graphic and a photo of Lynch pole vaulting. [x]
University of Vermont’s Prism Center
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SPOTLIGHT News STORY Kim Harris Stowell
Newsmakers | Rhode Island This Just in from the Ocean State services to gay and bisexual men who are black and Latino. Project Weber/RENEW, a peer-based program providing harm reduction and recovery services for sex workers and highrisk men and women, including transgender people, will use a portion of the funds to provide clinical services as well as expand its peer-based outreach and drop-in services.
Jennifer Finney Boylan
IN KINGSTON, URI HONORS COLLOQUIUM CENTERS ON GENDER IDENTITY, ACTIVISM While completing her graduate studies in English at Johns Hopkins University in the 1980s, Jennifer Finney Boylan learned the definition of plot—and life — from John Barth, her mentor during her time there. “If you think of your life as a story, in the normal part of your life, things are in balance. Then something happens and things come out of balance,” she continued. “That’s when your story really begins.” Boylan, a Columbia University professor, New York Times columnist and a transgender woman, was a speaker as part of this year’s URI Honors Colloquium, whose focus was “Reimagining Gender: Voices, Power, Action.” Boylan also spoke at URI in 2003, after the release of her book “She’s Not There.” This time, she took a moment to reflect on how far discussions on gender and sexuality have come in the years since.
The new program will also be directed toward reducing health disparities and barriers to substance use treatment, such as the lack of cultural competency of the people offering those services.
ROGD IS NOT A THING Opponents of LGBTQ equality made a lot of noise last month, claiming Brown University is “censoring” a study about transgender kids. That research, called “Rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports,” sought to make parents feel justified in rejecting their children’s gender identity by claiming that young people are motivated to become transgender by “social contagion.” Answering outlets like Fox News, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, Breitbart, and The College Fix, who called out Brown for “caving” to activists, the dean of Brown’s School of Public Health said simply, “removing the article from news distribution was the most responsible course of action.”
“Gen Silent”
‘GEN SILENT’ DOCUMENTARY PRESENTED BY URI ARTS AND CULTURAL PROGRAM AND SAGE-RHODE ISLAND Gen Silent, the critically-acclaimed documentary by filmmaker Stu Maddux, startlingly discovers how oppression in the years before Stonewall now affects older LGBT people and what is being done about it. The film will be shown on Friday, November 16 at 5:30 p.m. in the Paff Auditorium, URI Campus, 80 Washington St. Providence.
RADICAL MONARCHS In October, Brown University’s LGBTQ Center hosted an intimate and informal conversation with Radical Monarchs cofounders, Anayvette Martinez and Marilyn Hollinquest, whose vision is to empower young girls of color so that they step into their collective power, brilliance and leadership in order to make the world a more radical place. [x]
“In these 15 years, the discourse around transgender issues has really changed,” she said, “In spite of the way the world is now, it’s still better than when I stood on this stage 15 years ago.”
MIRIAM HOSPITAL GETS $2.5M GRANT TO TREAT GAY AND BISEXUAL BLACK AND LATINO MEN FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE Partnering with Project Weber/RENEW and the Rhode Island Public Health Institute, The Miriam Hospital will use a recent $2.5 million federal grant to establish a program providing substance use treatment
Radical Monarchs
NOV|DEC 2018 | 25
SPOTLIGHT News STORY Rob Phelps
Newsmakers | New Hampshire Headlines from the Granite State
Chris Pappas. PHOTO Charles Krupa/AP
PAPPAS WINS DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL PRIMARY New Hampshire’s Executive Councilor Chris Pappas, 38, won the New Hampshire Democratic US Congressional Primary on September 10. If elected on November 6 (this issue of Boston Spirit went to press just before then Midterm Elections) he was to become the first openly LGBT person elected to US Congress from the Granite State. Plus, in early October, former President Barack Obama officially endorsed him. Pappas’s primary race was one of the most closely watched and heavily contested state races—with 11 candidates, including Levi Sanders, son of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. And Pappas won it handily with 44 percent of the vote, according to New Hampshire’s WMUR-TV. According to NPR: “Pappas was backed by virtually all of the state’s political establishment, including Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan and neighboring Rep. Annie Kuster. His chief challenger was Maggie Sullivan, a former Obama administration official and Marine veteran who had just recently moved to New Hampshire and had to shake off the carpetbagger label. ... “The 1st District is one of just 13 in the country currently held by Democrats that also voted for President Trump in 2016, though the district only voted for Trump by less than 2 points. Still, Pappas will be heavily favored given the current climate, and the Cook Political Report rates the district Lean Democratic. He will face either former local police chief Eddie Edwards or state Sen. Andy Sanborn, who were leading
26 | BOSTON SPIRIT
Lisa Bunker. PHOTO courtesy NPR
Katie Edwards. PHOTO courtesy UNH
the GOP primary field, which had yet to be called by the Associated Press.”
or gender identity/expression,” Heather Ouellette-Cygan, chair of the New Hampshire chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). “This is an opportunity for students and educators to connect and network. It is important to keep their GSAs vibrant to give New Hampshire’s LGBTQ students a positive sense of self and the chance to learn and grow in safe, affirming schools.”
After college, Pappas, a Harvard graduate, returned to Manchester to help run his family’s business but soon found himself running for and winning a seat in the state’s house of representatives, serving two terms beginning in 2002. In 2006 he was elected Hillsborough County Treasurer, where he served for two terms. In 2012, he was elected to the New Hampshire Executive Council, where he serves today. Most days he can also be found working at his family’s Puritan Backroom Restaurant, which he co-owns.
COLBY-SAWYER COLLEGE HOSTS GLSEN GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE SUMMIT The state’s chapter of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) held its annual Gay-Straight Summit at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire, in October. Almost 100 students, advisors, school counselors and administrators participated in the event, which included workshops led by LQBTQ organizations from around the state. Author and transgender activist Lisa Bunker delivered the keynote address. Author and transgender activist Lisa Bunker delivered the keynote address. Bunker most recently received attention for her popular young adult novel “Felix Yz,” which deals with gender, sexuality, science and coming of age. “Our mission to ensure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation
UNH LAUNCHES STUDY ON VIOLENCE AMONG LGBT COLLEGE STUDENTS Researchers Katie Edwards of the University of New Hampshire and Heather Littleton at East Carolina University are conducting the largest study ever conducted about sexual violence among LGBT college students. Fifteen colleges and universities across the country have agreed to participate and the researchers expect to survey more than 20,000 students and 10,000 faculty and staff, according to a UNH press statement. “This study is important for two key reasons,” said Edwards, associate professor of psychology and women’s studies as well as an affiliate of UNH’s Prevention Innovations Research Center. “First, it allows us to rigorously evaluate a new model of sexual stigma. Second, it will help us identify risk and protective factors that will not only help reduce the rate of partner violence among sexual minority students, but may also reduce other public health concerns like problem drinking and suicide in this population.” [x]
SPOTLIGHT News STORY Natalie Nonki
Newsmakers | Connecticut Articles from The Constitution State LGBTQ youth and friends are invited to enjoy an evening of food, friendship and great conversations about issues that are important and interesting to them. The next events will take place on November 9 and December 14, both at 5:30 p.m., at The Center for Family Justice in Bridgeport. For signup information, contact Katelyn@CTPrideCenter.org or go to the Triangle Community Center website at www.ctpridecenter.org/events.
WOMEN AFTER HOURS HOSTS HOLIDAY DANCE PARTY University of Connecticut Chamber Singers
UCONN SINGERS HONOR MATTHEW SHEPARD WITH FALL CONCERT In a Music for Humanity concert at Asylum Hill Congregational Church on November 4, the University of Connecticut Chamber Singers and CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists) will honor Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten, tortured and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming back in 1998. The concert is part of a national observation of the 20th anniversary of Shepard’s murder, which started a national movement to foster awarness, respect and basic civil rights and protections for the LGBT community. The music was written, in Shepard’s honor, by Craig Hella Johnson in 2016. Tickets are $20, or $10 with student IDs, and everyone under 18 can attend for free. All proceeds from the Music for Humanity concert go to True Colors, Inc., the Hartford-based LGBT organization. Visit the event’s Facebook page or ourtruecolors.org for details.
There will be pizza, raffles, and of course, bowling. The party starts at 5 p.m. For tickets and more details, go to the organization's Facebook page or visit outct.org. OutCT is a nonprofit established in 2013 by a group of LGBTQ people and allies in Southeastern Connecticut that now offers youth programs, education and networking forums, art exhibits, a film series and more.
BRIDGEPORT YOUTH GROUP INVITES LGBTQ TEENS TO MONTHLY DINNERS On the second Friday of every month, the Bridgeport LGTBQ Youth Group hosts a dinner for teens age 13 to 17.
Women After Hours, the Hartford-based group, has sponsored social events and dances in Connecticut since 1992. On December 15, the group is hosting its Festive Holiday Dance Party at Nomad’s Adventure Quest in South Windsor. The event welcomes all members of the LGBT community as well as straight allies. There will be a cash bar, pool tables, door prizes and maybe even a special appearance from Santa! Attendees are encouraged to bring food bank donations in order to receive an extra entry for the door prizes. The cost of the event is $20 per person, and tables for 10 can be reserved ahead of time. Details are at www.meetup.com/ Women-After-Hours/events/254940940/. For more information about Women After Hours, go to www.wahdance.com. [x]
OUTCT BOWLING NIGHT ROLLS INTO NORWICH OutCT is having a lot of fun raising money to support transgender youth and they’re inviting everyone to join in. Just lace up a pair of bowling shoes and join them at the Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center on November 3. Tickets are $15, or $60 for a full team of five people. Triangle Community Center youth NOV|DEC 2018 | 27
Calling All Pilgrims The Mayflower II is coming to Provincetown two years from now and you had better make some reservations. After all, the queer community in Provincetown is sure to make a party of it. Imagine: the music, the club, the drag of Pilgrims on Parade in Provincetown. For those of you lucky enough to see what Provincetown can do to a simple holiday (4th of July, anyone?), I’m sure you can formulate in your mind’s eye the pomp and circumstance of the 400th anniversary celebration. Plymouth will co-host the regional celebration which is befitting to the story of the Pilgrims’ first landing and final residence. But Provincetown will no doubt be the place to be to celebrate the arrival of democracy on our shores.
Today, Provincetown is a town known for many pilgrimages. Young queers finding their way to their first tea dance, baby-dykes leading the way toward summer on Memorial Day weekend and of course, bears, leathermen, trans bois and grrls escaping their everyday lives to cavort with “family” on dance floors, B&B porches, and the transcendental beaches that sound out the siren call to so many. Plenty of stories we’ll read this fall will remind us of that great pilgrimage of 1620, when the little boat that could set sail for freedom. With its pristine shoreline and
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undeveloped National Seashore, visitors today can easily imagine what the world looked like nearly 400 years ago. The crisp air, the bright sun, and the big boastful breezes as you climb through the dunes seem untouched by time. Visiting Provincetown in October and November allows one to be submerged in history one minute and then brought back to the present the next. After all, there’s nothing like a quiet walk in the woods followed by a modern gastronomical feast set out by today’s hottest restaurants and bistros. Shopping is also
a throwback to another time. Remember when there was no copycat chain store sitting on Main Street selling you the same old-same old? Provincetown’s artisan stores, galleries, and specialty shops showcase the creative energy of the place and harken back to a time when purveyors found and sold one-of-a-kind items. Pilgrims taking in a visit to Provincetown this fall and winter are certain to find blissful recreation and exciting entertainment. Hotels, inns and b&b’s offer some of the finest accommodations in New England and
Thanksgiving Weekend Nov. 21-25 Holly Folly Nov. 29-Dec. 2
Fall in love with
First Light Provincetown Dec. 28-Jan. 2
You belong here! For more details visit
ptowntourism.com Facebook: Provincetown | Twitter: @PtownTourism | YouTube: PtownTourism’s channel | Instagram: Ptowntourism, #MyPtown
many offer special winter rates certain to warm you up. Please visit ptowntourism. com for a complete list of lodging, eateries, galleries, retail shops and attractions. Special
note: Bay State Cruises will continue weekend ferry service through the beginning of December. For more information and schedules visit baystatecruisecompany. com.
THINGS TO DO IN PROVINCETOWN: Here is a current list of things to do in Provincetown this fall and winter. For more information, visit ptowntourism.com
DECEMBER
N OV E M B E R
2 3rd Annual Provincetown Day of the Dead Performing Arts Festival 9–12 Veterans Day Weekend 16–18 Mr. New England Leather Weekend 21 Lighting of the Pilgrim Monument 22 Thanksgiving Day 23 Drag Bingo Ptown.org 24 Lighting of the Lobster Pot Tree at Lopes Square 30 “Tis the Season for Giving” 30 Holly Folly (through Dec. 2)
1,2 Holly Folly (Starts Nov. 30) 1 World AIDS Day 1 Souper Saturday 7,8 Outer Cape Chorale Concert “Choruses of the Stage and Screen” 25 Christmas Day 28–1 First Light Provincetown Weekend & Fireworks JANUARY
1 Polar Bear Plunge 1 First Light Fireworks Ptown.org/ FirstLight, 5:30 pm 18-21 Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend FEBRUARY
14-18 Valentine’s Day/ Presidents’ Day Weekend 22-24 Snowbound Leather Weekend XII
NOV|DEC 2018 | 29
FEATURE Nightlife STORY Scott Kearnan
Paradise Lost Disco ball spins over last dance at iconic Cambridge nightclub The first American city to issue samesex marriage licenses has lost its last gay bar. In September, the mirror ball finally stopped spinning at Paradise nightclub, a decades-long fixture in its corner address at 180 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. Owner Paul McCarthy sold the building to Novartis Pharmaceuticals, a longtime tenant, his lawyer, James Rafferty, told the Cambridge Chronicle. The
news devastated longtime patrons. And for good reason. The end of Paradise marks the latest shuttering of a gay bar in a region where dedicated LGBTQ venues are few and far between, despite (or perhaps because of ) a generally inclusive culture. And Paradise was a particular kind of place. Known for its no-frills vibe, cheap drinks, underwear-clad dancers, porn-pumping TVs, and anything-goes attitude, it was a throwback to unabashedly carnal eras of gay nightlife, a time when such spaces still felt a little seedy, a little illicit—and very fun. “I feel a sense of loss and time passing. There was an unapologetic sexuality about Paradise and some other bars that’s
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been gentrified out of the few remaining bars,” says Mark Krone, board member of The History Project, an organization dedicated to collecting, archiving and sharing the Boston area’s LGBTQ history. I spoke with Krone and many other LGBTQ locals last year for a feature in Boston magazine about the slow dwindle of gay bars around the city. Most agreed that the demise of these once-sacred
safe spaces was the price of progress: As gay people became more accepted in the quote-unquote mainstream, and as the Internet supplanted cruising as the crux of hookup culture, the perceived need for gay bars lessened. The closing of Paradise feels like a particularly poignant moment in this narrative. In 2004, at nearby Cambridge City Hall, lovebirds lined up at midnight to be the first same-sex couples in the country to be legally married. And yet, just a few months ago, partygoers snaked down the block outside Paradise until 3 a.m. to say goodbye to the only gay bar in one of the country’s most progressive cities. Then again, today’s surviving gay bars tend to skew a bit more upscale and inviting to mixed crowds. They book stars from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” pour martinis and are respectable enough that straight bachelorette parties enthusiastically descend on them.
“Now it is a given that non-gay people, especially straight women, will be present—and that changes things,” says Krone. “Of course, it is a sign of acceptance and progress that some straight people want to be in gay bars—but the underground feel is lost.”
Lurid and life-affirming “To me, Paradise had a more dated feel than most due to the dancers and porn videos. Today, young people might wonder what that was about. I think its time had passed, too. Back in the ’70s and ’80s, there was a secretive feel to some bars which made them intimidating and thrilling.” And yet, those thrills were not lost on the younger generation. “It wasn’t a place that was squeaky clean, where you had to hold up a particular image. Paradise was a place where you were allowed to be yourself,” says Jared Buchanan, a model and former dancer at Paradise. He had never even been inside the club until his first shift—and what an eye-popping introduction that was. “I stripped down to my underwear, came downstairs, and there’s porn all over the TVs while I adjusted to dancing in front of a bunch of strangers,” says Buchanan, laughing. “I almost fell off the stage three times.” Soon his job became second nature, and that delightfully lurid atmosphere came to represent much of what made the place so special.
“That’s what I liked about Paradise,” says Buchanan. “It helped me learn to be free with myself.” David Cummings agrees. “Even with my first visit, I felt like I didn’t have to be anything other than myself,” says Cummings. “It was the first time I was really able to be that way, and I remember being in awe of this community.” For many older folks, entering a gay bar represented the first hesitant step towards coming out. Cummings’ story highlights a generational shift: The New Hampshire native had already been out and dating for several years when he entered his first gay bar, Paradise, at age 24. But he still believes in the importance of such venues. “I think it’s so incredibly important for individuals in the queer community to have their safe spaces,” says Cummings. “And they’re places to invite in others that don’t identify on that spectrum and show them, ‘This is how we treat each other. This is who we are. This is how we live.’” Cummings wound up working as a dancer at Paradise, and chuckles at how the spot’s salacious “reputation” and handsy old-timers (“lurkers,” some dancers called them) invited a certain nickname: “Parasite.” “Obviously, the place was framed as somewhere that said, ‘We’re going to play porn, we’re going to have loose boundaries,’” says Cummings, who remembers seeing one guest perform oral sex right in the middle of the packed dance floor. “It was kind of anything-goes, and that trickled down to the bartenders and bouncers. If there was a line, it was in sand. And it was blurry. And it varied from night to night.”
Roots back to Prohibition Paradise certainly enjoyed a long run of wild nights, but its history is a bit tough to trace. Its last owner, Paul McCarthy, did not respond to requests for an interview. But local lore has it that Paradise Café—as the space was officially named—had been some kind of barroom since it opened in the 1930s. Its reputation as a gay bar emerged sometime in the late 1970s, when it was owned by the sister of Stan Sorrentino, a colorful character who opened Provincetown’s Crown & Anchor in 1962. Sorrentino, a purported pal of Whitey Bulger who was convicted of tax evasion in 1984,
took over the operations of Paradise in the early 1980s, recalls sound engineer Alan Pottak. Sorrentino tapped Pottak, who previously worked for iconic spots like Studio 54, to design and install a sound system for Paradise when he converted the basement level, previously a cruising spot, into a dance floor. Sorrentino died in 1999 and McCarthy took over the property around 2001, according to a statement he gave to the Cambridge License Commission. He introduced dancers and porn playing overhead, and eventually doubled the size of the downstairs dance floor. Pottak returned to refurbish the sound system, adding speakers and subwoofers from two other now-closed gay-favorite spots, Manray and Avalon. Over the years, that dance floor saw many special guests, from guest DJ Nina Flowers, runner-up on the first season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” to Lady Bunny, to visiting porn stars. “I loved the acoustics in that room,” says Pottak of Paradise, wistfully. “It was one of my favorites.” Conrado Cardenas loved it too. The legendary Boston DJ, who helped usher disco on to the airwaves at KISS 108 in the late 1970s, was sought by Sorrentino to launch a gay Latin night at Paradise around 1990. According to records from The History Project, it was the first gay Latin night in the Boston area. “It was unbelievable how many people we got there,” says Cardenas, who remembers crowds of up to 300 for the Monday night parties. The event eventually moved to Chaps, where it grew even larger, but Cardenas continued to return to Paradise as a patron. In fact, he was there on the club’s final night, bidding a fond farewell to a place that was much more than a mere watering hole. It was a place to connect. It was a place cut loose. It was a place to find community. It was, in its own way, a little slice of paradise. “You always felt at home,” says Cardenas. “You didn’t feel threatened. You didn’t feel inhibited.” Though they’re fading away, he says, we still need those spaces. “Unfortunately, in the digital phase of our lives, everyone has become so individualistic,” says Cardenas. “But we still need places to mingle with our own.” [x]
NOV|DEC 2018 | 31
FEATURE Music/Politics STORY Kim Harris Stowell
The Power of Music Boston Gay Men’s Chorus takes its mission of inspiration and empowerment to South Africa They have performed in Poland, Germany and Tel Aviv. Their music has touched hearts and minds in numerous foreign concert halls. Still, everyone seems to feel that this year’s trip stands out among the others. This year, they went to South Africa. (More photos on page<?>.) The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC) has been performing since 1982, and is today over 200 voices strong. Celebrated for their outstanding musicianship and creativity, the group is perhaps at its best when they are acting as cultural ambassadors. Whether it is bringing their message to their own community, being the first gay men’s chorus in the country to welcome transgender singers, or traveling around the world, the BGMC has as its mission to inspire change, build community and celebrate difference. As Musical Director Reuben M. Reynolds III says, “It is important to take our music to places in the world that might be inspired to hear our message.” Chorus members have been preparing for the trip to South Africa for a long time. Aside from the rehearsing and choreographing the music itself, each member was responsible for paying his own way. For many, this meant some fundraising. Member Joe Valdez organized a CrowdRise page, and was truly touched by the dozens of people who made contributions,
32 | BOSTON SPIRIT
some of whom he hadn’t talked with in years. A music teacher in the Waltham public school system, Valdez was also concerned at first about leaving on tour before the end of the school year, but the response to his request was just as touching, with every single decision-maker giving it an enthusiastic green light. One of the first things the chorus did upon arriving in Johannesburg was to visit the Apartheid Museum. “It was a powerful way to start our tour,” said Valdez, “to see the rich history of the country, and how they fought for decades, finally able to triumph over apartheid. We were struck to the core, and left feeling raw. We thought about our own country’s political climate, and it was a good reminder not to be complacent, to keep going.” Their first concert was in Soweto. Proceeds from the performance would benefit a program working with LGBT youth, at whose center the chorus had been honored earlier in the day with a song sung by the youth. In an online blog, chorus member Alex Kapitan wrote, “In my mind the youth of Soweto mingled with the youth of the sit-ins and the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s—as well as the youth who started the I Am Trayvon Martin campaign and the activist survivors of Parkland, Florida. I marched for, and with, them all.”
Musical Director Reuben M. Reynolds III at rehearsal, Langa, Cape Town. First-ever Pride parade, George, South Africa. After-safari campfire. PHOTOS Thomas L. Collins III
[LEFT TO RIGHT]
That night, a large, enthusiastic crowd assembled in the concert hall, becoming more and more engaged as the music lifted everyone in the space. The Mzansi Gay Choir, a local chorus organized just for the event, joined them onstage. In the second act, the whole group sang Tshotsholoza, a South African freedom song, and the audience went wild. When the song ended, the people spontaneously got on their feet and began to sing the song back to the chorus. It was a transformative moment. Their next stop was to be George, whose mayor had made public, homophobic remarks, saying the BGMC was not welcome there. In a surprise move, the mayor was abruptly put on administrative leave by his own party, and the chorus was warmly welcomed by the deputy mayor instead. While in George, the chorus was given the honor of leading the city’s inaugural Pride Parade, marching through the streets among cheering crowds and smiling faces. “It was,” said Valdez, “the chance of a lifetime.” It was a trip with many such moments. At one venue, a man approached the singers after the show, proclaiming that the music had taken the effects of six months of depression off his shoulders. Another man shared with the group over dinner one evening the importance of music in his country. His father had been a demonstrator against apartheid, saying “South African democracy was born out of four-part harmony.” He then added that, “In South Africa, when people want to celebrate, they sing. When they need
to mourn, they sing. When they want to protest, they sing. When the police come and try to disperse the crowd, the people sing, and the music is so strong, the police cannot disperse the crowd.” As for take-away moments, Valdez spoke of the cliché about music changing lives. “it’s something I say a lot. But in South Africa, we could see the faces of the people whose lives we were touching. We could talk to them. How could we not be moved? When your audience is weeping, how can that not change you as an artist?”
He went on to explain that, for him, part of the magic of the BGMC lies in their approach to performance. Often, he said, a musical performance is meant to show the audience what great musicians the performers are, while the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus “takes music and stories, stands up and performs them in front of an audience, and hopes that audience is inspired to see how great they themselves are.” A wonderful distinction. For the BGMC, it is central to their mission to remember the power of music. In
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South Africa, the group was able to use that power to raise tens of thousands of dollars to help local HIV/AIDS treatment centers, refugees and asylum seekers. Valdez sums it up by saying, “It is so important for us to take these emotions from our tour and bring them back to Boston, to let them continue to inspire us. We must be intentional with our music every single time. You never know when there is someone in the audience who really needs to hear our message.” [x]
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FEATURE Business STORY Kim Harris Stowell Erica Feldman and Melissa Nierman HausWitch interior [OPPOSITE, BOTTOM] HausWitch Home + Healing storefront with Erica Feldman and Melissa Nierman [AT LEFT]
[OPPOSITE, TOP]
The Businesswitches of Salem Erica Feldman and Melissa Nierman are building community and encouraging radical acts of self-care with their modern metaphysical shop and tours Something is happening in Salem. It has to do with witches, but we are not talking about the ones hanged in the town square in the late 1600s. Well, actually they are at the heart of the story, but we’ll get to that later.
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The first thing I noticed when walking through the streets of Salem, Massachusetts was all the rainbow flags. The church had those welcoming rainbow doors out front, and at least one crosswalk was painted in rainbow colors. A good start.
I was there to meet Erica Feldman and Melissa Nierman, a couple who are out as both lesbians and witches. Together, they earn their livelihood from witchcraft in one form or another. Nierman runs various walking tours of Salem that explore the history of the witch, its social significance and the events that led to the hysteria of 1692. Participants hear about the trials from a feminist perspective and learn about the witch archetype and witch hunts all over the world and throughout history, including the present. Nierman talks about how class, gender, race and religion affected the trials—not your typical Salem witch tour! Her NowAge Travel tours are an outgrowth of a shop the two manage, HausWitch Home + Healing (144 Washington Street, Salem), which itself is an outgrowth of Feldman’s life-long fascination with witches. Called “a modern metaphysical lifestyle brand and shop,” HausWitch combines the principles of earth magic, meditation, herbalism, Jungian psychology and interior decorating “to bring magic and healing into everyday spaces.” The shop is an intentionally inclusive space for women, the LGBTQ+ community, POC and “anyone who feels like they are in need of a truly supportive and safe environment in this ever-changing world.” To get the full picture of the place, one must actually go there. The intentionality can be felt everywhere, from the beautiful,
mysterious fragrance you smell upon entering (the sign outside reads: “Come for the smells; stay for the spells”) to the fascinating selection of products (interspersed—intentionally—with tarot cards, crystals and such), and the overarching aura of authenticity and positivity. Says Feldman, “our space hugs people.” The shop offers an array of books, candles, art, bath and beauty products and cards, as well as a friendly collective of astrology and tarot readers, clairvoyants, energy healers and more, ready to assist you in your self-care practice. They also offer spells, clever little boxes filled with items to—for example—protect your home from negative energy. Called the North Wind, this particular one includes a small clay cauldron, used with the enclosed salt and white quartz crystal to give off positive, light energy. The sandalwood incense and forest-scented candle clear the way for “the North Wind to blow all the heebie jeebies away.” Over the years, they have occasionally conjured up some specialty spell kits, like the recent one designed to send gratitude to Dr. Christine Ford. Most fascinating is the spirituality, politics and passion behind it all. It emanates from these two women. It is their view
that the witch is an archetype ripe for reclaiming, and they welcome anyone to join them. Witches come in many forms, they explain, from the Wiccan tradition with its rituals, to the herbalist and the healer. What today’s witches are not is diabolical, they add, any more than the
witches of colonial Salem were. Witches are wise, empowered women who are in tune with the energy of the universe. There is a thread of radical intersectional feminism woven through everything Feldman and Nierman do and, in the end, they are trying to create something bigger than just a business. They are building community and encouraging radical acts like self-care, and they are educating themselves and others, speaking truth where it needs to be spoken. “We want to shine a light on the persecution of the witches of Salem, and how that relates to the anti-immigrant hysteria of today.” The shop hosts events known as Witching Hours—often phone banking—and the newest one, Witch the Vote, in an effort to make it easy for activism to happen. The fact that they are a loving lesbian couple only adds to the magic, they both agree. “Our work is heart-based, says Nierman, adding that their relationship has been, right from the start, one leap after another. “But with risk, there can come a much greater reward.” [x]
HausWitchstore.com
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FEATURE Sports STORY Tom Joyce Steve Harrington, with Federation of Gay Games medal recognizing participation in all 10 Gay Games.
A Champ for All Seasons Competing in 10 Gay Games, gold-medalist Steve Harrington is in a league of his own In the LGBTQIA community Steve Harrington is among an elite class of athletes. That is because Harrington recently competed in the 10th Gay Games in Paris
36 | BOSTON SPIRIT
this past August, making him one of just nine athletes across the globe who has competed in every single one of them since the event’s inception in 1982.
“It’s Paris. It was absolutely wonderful,” he said. “As far as organization and sports were concerned, it was well done. We took a second week and spent time traveling through southern France. It was amazing.” At the opening cocktail party prior to the games, Harrington, who competes in basketball, was awarded a medal for his accomplishment. “It was an absolute honor. I’m really, really proud of that and am looking forward to Hong Kong in 2022.” While Harrington is a standout basketball player and a member of the Boston Gay Basketball League’s Hall of Fame, Harrington’s route to the games wasn’t exactly conventional. Growing up in a basketball family, Harrington excelled at the sport. He was the captain of his high school basketball team in Rochester, New Hampshire and was even briefly a member of the Bowdoin College (NCAA Division 3) basketball team in two separate stints (ultimately, he ended up playing intramural basketball and excelled). He also said on two separate occasions, playing the sport has saved his life. “Being gay in rural New Hampshire, I never dated in high school,” he said. “It was basketball that was my girlfriend. When I left the house, I had a basketball under my arm and that was the relationship for me. And in college, I didn’t do much dating. Basketball was my devotion.” When Harrington found out he was HIV positive in 1990, he also said his athletic background paid off. “I really feel that being healthy and athletic, basketball has saved my life,” he said. “It has kept me healthy for the past nearly 30 years.” A few years after college, Harrington moved to Denver, Colorado in 1981. It was an opportunity for a new start in an area with a high LGBTQIA population where he could safely come out of the closet. While living there, he joined the Soccer Rockies, a gay-friendly soccer team in the city organized by one of his friends. In 1982, a handful of the team’s players, including Harrington, who was 27 years
“ Growing up, I thought there were no other gay athletes. But I found a team, and the year after I came out I was walking into a stadium filled with 1,800 LGBTQ athletes and 8,000 people in the stands. ”
old at the time, found out about the first ever Gay Games from the team’s organizers. They were interested and competed in them in San Francisco. To this day, it is still Harrington’s favorite experience at the games despite being more of a basketball player himself. “It was so novel,” he said. “Growing up, I thought there were no other gay athletes. But I found a soccer team and the year after I came out, I was walking into a stadium filled with 1,800 LGBTQ athletes and 8,000 people in the stands. That was mind-boggling. It was so different than I thought my life was going to be like. Amsterdam had like 60,000 people at its opening ceremony. New York’s opening ceremony was at Yankee Stadium. Sydney was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. It was an extraordinary experience to be in Australia. Every one has had its flavor that made it special.” Harrington liked it so much, in fact, that he ended up quitting his job in 1986 to create the Colorado Athletic Exchange—a group in charge of organizing and bringing
Although he has enjoyed his experiences competing in the games, there is one way they could have been better for Harrington: if the 2014 games were held in Boston. A bid was put in for the city but ultimately, Cleveland secured the rights that time Steve Harrington around. However, simply being a 120 Colorado athletes to the second ever part of the process of to try to attract the Gay Games which also took place in San games to Boston was a special moment for Francisco. That time around, he did not Harrington. compete in soccer, but rather track and “I was very, very honored to be a part of field as well as basketball. Since the 1990 that presentation and to speak in front games, however, he has strictly done of the Federation of Gay Games,” he said. basketball. “When I drive through Boston, I still think Certainly, the skill level of the Gay about the fact that opening ceremonies Games is competitive, and Harrington were going to be at Fenway Park. Boston appreciates it. Most notably, he rememUniversity was going to be the Olympic bers witnessing Dutch pole-vaulter Village. We had support from all of the Monique de Wilt break her country’s own major Boston sports teams, the mayor, the women’s record (4.16 meters) at the 1998 governor, all of the city officials.” games in Amsterdam. “It was such a dream to have been able to “It’s top class athletes from around the bring Boston the Gay Games but unfortuworld,” Harrington said. “It’s not just nately, it didn’t work out,” he added. “But recreational play.” I’ve lived a blessed life in many, many ways and am fortunate.” [x]
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Yuletide Pride
VIP seats tickets include a post-show meet-and-greet with autographs and photos. December 6
Berklee Performance Center, Boston berklee.edu
‘Nut/Cracked’ / ‘Gumdrops and The Funny Uncle’
A few of our favorite things to do this holiday season As the first snowflakes fall, there’s a flurry of LGBT holiday happenings all over New England. Around the time the first Community Servings Pie in the Sky is delivered (see “Tis the Season” on page 12), through Provincetown’s Holly Folly Weekend (see Calendar on page 81), and gaily on through the season to the First Night festivities (see below), cheerful, queer-full celebrations abound. Here are just a few of the best ones around:
‘A John Waters Christmas’ Gay icon and subversive cinema superstar John Waters famously summers every year at his second home in Provincetown, so we’re lucky to lure him away from his beloved Baltimore in the offseason for a new installment of his cheerfully
ked” “Nut/Crac unconventional one-man show “A John Waters Christmas.” If you’re looking for “It’s a Wonderful Life,” well—look elsewhere. This unconventional Christmas show comes from the king of cult cinema, so expect a one-man show that is appropriately subversive and silly, gift-wrapped with the artist’s colorful and queer sensibility. Waters rewrites much of it each year, so you’re likely to receive all-new regaling about Christmas shopping, holiday memories and dinner party etiquette (or lack thereof ).
Peter DiMuro’s “Funny Uncle Cabaret” and David Parker’s “Nut/Cracked” equal two nontraditional holiday dance treats in one. First, “Funny Uncle” is an alternative non-Nutcracker dance/theater performance celebrating families of choice through an LGTBQ lens. An intergenerational cast, professional and community performers alike, illuminates the adapted holiday celebrations of families we’re born to and families of choice through stories, through dance, a mirror ball and bit of glitter. Next, “Nut/Cracked,” the international sensation performed by The Bang Group, returns to Boston, celebrating the sounds of the holidays with tap and percussive dance, jazz renditions of the Tchaikovsky and bubble wrap. December 14–16
BCA Plaza Theatres, Boston dancecomplex.org
Boston Gay Men’s Chorus: ‘Brass, Bows and Boys’ An eight-piece orchestra, a bounty of bows and gay apparel and 200 members of the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus singing traditional favorites and modern classics aim to put the merry into Christmas. The title of the show comes from the opening piece “Holiday Bells, Brass
an orm gG
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and Boys,” written by Chorus member David Shaffer. The second half features the parody “Santa’s Turn,” by Chorus member Jay Baer, and the concert ends with the holiday medley “Pictures of a Season” by the Chorus’s principal accompanist and assistant music director Chad Weirick.
First Light Provincetown: It may be only year two for this holiday tradition but the “gayest town in the world” is Boston Gay
Men’s Choru s PHOTO G
etjen Hele ne
December 1
Provincetown Town Hall, Provincetown, ptown. org (No brass band at this performance) December 9, 14–16
New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Boston, bgmc.org
Toys4Joys 10th Annual Gift Gala Toys4Joys started as a home party in 2002 with a simple understanding that toys provide joy to children. Its mission is at once pretty simple with enormous possibilities: “For too many children, the holiday season is not a time of giddy anticipation, indulgent parties and generous gift giving. While a new toy will not fix every problem, we believe it can change a child’s perspective. What starts as a smile and a silly laugh can lead to a positive, more hopeful outlook. And, from that more joyful place, the possibilities are endless.” What’s more, that simple party has grown into one of the most anticipated holiday events on the LGBTQA calendar year. Revelers full of the spirit of the season and loaded with presents for kids in need watch as thousands of donated toys pile high under a holiday tree. Guests and volunteers enjoy passed hors d’oeuvres, signature seasonal spirits and dancing under a state-of-the-art light show.
First Night Portsmouth: Launched in 1986, this event marks the only official First Night-affiliated event in the state and features fireworks, music and more. (For a gay twist to the night, stop by gay friendly lounge The Red Door around midnight.) proportsmouth.org eager to welcome the first rays of 2019 with hope for a brighter one all the way around. ptown.org First Night Burlington: Vermont’s biggest city once again makes art the focal point of its annual event at what it bills as the longest-standing private New Year’s Eve celebration in the country. firstnightburlington.org
December 7
First Night Hartford: Not one but two fireworks displays light up the skies in the Connecticut capital’s 30th annual First Night festivities. (Hartford’s gay Chez Est is a good place for that midnight kiss.) firstnighthartford.org Boston First Night: New England’s largest city hosts its annual line-up of fun, free and cultural events from its traditional ice sculptures and midnight light show to performances all over Back Bay. Plus check out special festivities at favorite gay clubs like Club Café, where the New Year’s scene is always packed. firstnightboston.org [x]
Revere Hotel, Boston toys4joys.org
First Night, First Light Looking forward to a bright, New Year, communities throughout New England will ring in 2019 with First celebrations. Those with a notable LGBT twist include: First Night Northampton: The “lesbian capital of America,” where the Northampton Arts Council is hosting its 34th First Night festival. firstnightnorthampton.org.
First Nigh t No rtha mpto n en terta iners NOV|DEC 2018 | 39
SEASONAL Fashion ART DIRECTION AND PHOTOGRAPHY Joel Benjamin
Festive Accents Wearable art created by local women and sold at a South End boutique—perfect gifts to dress up the holidays and enjoy all year long This holiday season, Melissa Finelli is filling her South End boutique Melle Finelli Jewelry with lots of pieces in “bright, happy colors. The world around us is feeling pretty heavy these days,” she says. “So I want to share a sense of full-blown hope with visitors to my shop.” Just visiting her shop is a treat—nestled in the courtyard at 46 Waltham Street. “It’s like the inside of a jewelry box,” she says. “I love watching visitors’ faces light up as the step inside.”
an appreciation for organic forms and playful design. She forges her jewelry by hand in silver or 18k gold by heating the metal, then hammering each piece into life. By creating jewelry this way, no two pieces are exactly alike. Similarly, the work and styles of the other artists she represents are completely unique in her jewel-box boutique. [RP] [x] mellefinellijewelry.com
Finelli specializes in both personal attention to her customers and a personal connection with each of the artists she represents. She cultivates relationships with artists whose work she discovers locally and at art shows and events across the country. Most of the artists are women—currently 18 of the 20 whose works are on display in her store. “When someone visits the store and asks me about a particular piece, I can tell them stories about the piece and about the artist who made it,” she says. A Boston-based jeweler and metalsmith, Finelli is also Boston-trained in her art. She studied metalsmithing at the North Bennet Street School and sculpture at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. She describes her award-winning works as intimate sculptures to adorn the body and encompass
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Designer Shannon Owen, necklace: felt and stones, $380 Designer: Melle Finelli, necklace: sterling silver â&#x20AC;&#x153;Scribble,â&#x20AC;? $500; earrings: sterling silver, $295 Designer: Mary Filapek and Lou Ann Townsend, necklace: silver, powder coated, $590
Laura Dillon, Team, Inc. Dan Norman [MODELS] Alicia Googins, Kathleen Segovia, Alex A. (Maggie, Inc.) [HAIR AND MAKE-UP] [STYLING]
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Designer: Hilary Hertzler, necklaces: clay beads and recycled vinyl, yellow, $250; cream, $85 Designer: Melle Finelli, necklace: garnet with gold, $2500; ring: 18K gold and diamonds, $4000; earrings: oxidized silver, $395 Designer: Alexandra Lozier, necklace: sterling silver aragonite, $250
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Designer: Lisa Crowder, necklace: silver enamel, $240; earrings: silver enamel, $285 Designer: Melle Finelli, necklace: sterling silver â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bubblesâ&#x20AC;? $3600 Designer: Nina Gregg, necklace: $198
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Designer: Melle Finelii, ring: sterling silver â&#x20AC;&#x153;Scribble,â&#x20AC;? $550; necklace: sterling silver, $2200 Designer: Maria Eife, bracelet: 3-D printed from nylon plastic, $290 Designer: Maia Leppo, necklace, $630; earrings, $140 / Designer Melle Finelli, ring: sterling silver, $595
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amazing clients Navigating Family Crisis through Guardians, and Conservators By Lisa M. Cukier with contributions by Sarah M. Schulte The holidays are a time to focus on family and harmony. This harmony however may be difficult to achieve if your partner or a member of your family is struggling with addiction, an eating disorder, cognitive decline, mental illness, or some other affliction which negatively impacts her or his well-being. If you are entering the holiday season worried about a loved one's mental capacity to make informed decisions for her- or himself, then familiarize with the following information. New laws enacted in Massachusetts in 2009 and 2012 streamlined the process for dealing with the estates of Massachusetts residents during their incapacity and a�er their death. As a general rule, capacity is presumed. However, present law provides a number of tools which, when applied properly, may allow family members of an individual who appears to lack mental capacity to ensure that the individual's medical, financial, and general wellbeing is preserved and provide much needed peace of mind to the incapacitated individual as well as her family. These tools include the use of guardians, conservators, health care proxies, and attorneys in fact.
– Planning for Incapacity for Same-Sex Couples¹ – Traditionally, third parties look informally to next of kin as a surrogate family decision maker when a loved one is unable to handle his or her own affairs. In the absence of estate planning instruments which direct who has priority in decision making, third parties and the courts will look to traditional notions of biological family. This presents a particular challenge to members of the LGBT community who act as parents to children to whom they have no biological relationship. Advance directives, such as health care proxies, living wills, durable powers of attorney, and directions for bodily remains, can be used to affirmatively give decision-making power to someone the individuals select, rather than letting the decisions fall to someone they would not choose, or whom they would not want to have such power. Additionally, because same-sex spouses may be challenged more o�en than different-sex spouses when making decisions for their incapacitated spouses, having documents readily available which clearly communicate the incapacitated person's wishes may ease some the tension and pain of the situation. With a thoughtful estate plan dra�ed well before any potential incapacity comes to light, same-sex couples can plan for their futures on their own terms and ensure that the people responsible for making decisions on their behalf (should it become necessary) are of their own choosing. ¹For more on this topic, please reference: Pa ence Crozier, Lisa M. Cukier, Andrea T. Dunbar, & Joyce Kauffman, Same-Sex Marriage, Divorce, and Estate Planning Issues, in 3 MASSACHUSETTS DIVORCE LAW PRACTICE MANUAL 27-1 (2nd Supplement, 2016). 48 | BOSTON SPIRIT
– A Brief Overview: Guardians and Conservators – A guardian is appointed by the Court to make decisions regarding an incapacitated person's support, care, education, health, and welfare. She has the power to apply available money to provide for the individual's current needs, take reasonable care of the incapacitated individual's personal effects, apply for statutory benefits, and apply for professional services on the individual's behalf. A conservator, on the other hand, is appointed by the Court to make decisions only regarding the incapacitated person's financial support and care. She has the power to pay, with the incapacitated person's assets, for the support, education, care, or benefits of the protected individual and/or his dependents without court authorization and has the authority to pay, contest, or settle any claim by or against the individual's estate. The conservator may even make a will for the protected person or make gi�s to charity in his or her name. Any person interested in the welfare of the alleged incapacitated person may petition for Guardianship or Conservatorship, on grounds that the individual lacks mental capacity to make informed decisions regarding her affairs. It no longer needs to be a family member by blood or marriage. Thus, even non-marital partners can petition. When appointing a guardian, the court will give first priority of appointment to the person nominated in the incapacitated person's most recent durable power of attorney, so long as that person is not disqualified for any reason, such as for example, a conflict of interest. However, when appointing a conservator, the court is statutorily required to make an appointment independent from the individual chosen by an incapacitated person prior to her or his incapacity. Because the law now allows a conservator to change an incapacitated individual's estate plan if the court deems it fair and in his best interest, speak with your lawyer about how to best protect yourself.
– Who Trumps Whom as Between Guardian and Health Care Proxy and as Between Conservators and Durable Power of Attorney – The new laws alter decades of prior statutory law and case law on the issue of who has more power, as between a healthcare proxy and guardian, and who trumps whom as between durable power of attorney and conservator. The laws were revised in 2009 and 2012 such that the health care proxy now trumps the guardian so long as the court decree for guardianship does not expressly revoke the health care proxy's authority. If that is the case, then the proxy controls the health care-related decisions and the guardian controls all other personal decisions. With respect to financial decision-making authority, a conservator can trump the attorney in fact appointed under a durable power of attorney. While that law did not change when the relevant portion of the Probate Code (Article 5) was enacted in 2009, it still leaves some questions unanswered, so conservators need to be certain that, if appointed, they protect themselves by revoking any outstanding durable powers of attorney which nominate an attorney in fact to make financial decisions for the incapacitated person. Although the attorney in fact is at all times accountable to the conservator, the conservator bears ultimate responsibility for the protected person's assets. Thus, the conservator could risk exposure to liability for failing to safeguard assets to which the attorney in fact has access. If, despite good efforts of a conservator to identify all outstanding durable powers of attorney that exist, such an instrument is later discovered that was not revoked, and if the nominated attorney in fact has been acting under the power of attorney, whether before or during the conservator's appointment, the conservator can ask the attorney in fact to account to the conservator for any actions and transactions regarding the protected person's assets.
Conclusion Incapacity can take a number of forms, from addiction to dementia to mental illness. Caring for a loved one suffering from an affliction, which has affected her or his ability to make informed decisions and interact with the world in the same manner she used to, can be a painful experience, especially during the holiday season. However there are steps families can take, prior to and in the event of incapacity, which protect assets, allow for choice in who will hold decision-making power, and ensure that the incapacitated individual's welfare is preserved to the highest degree possible. If you want more information about how this area of the law may impact you or a loved one, please contact me at lcukier@burnslev.com. NOV|DEC 2018 | 49
SEASONAL Year in Review COMPILED Rob Phelps
Best of All Possible News In what seemed like a daily-bad-news year, positive LGBT stories prevailed
extended marriage equality to same-sex couples. Interestingly, Puerto Rico, though a jurisdiction and not a state, confirmed Maite Orono Rodríguez, a lesbian, to lead its highest court last year.
Politically speaking, 2018 proved a mixed bag at best—and, okay, even that’s arguably through deeply rose-tinted shades. Despite an onslaught of disheartening news, however, the LGBTQ community and our allies persevered in so many ways. As we enter the holiday season, reflecting on the best from this challenging year is more than a mere look on the bright side; keeping our sights on these positive stories—and more like them—is essential to move on, come what may. And so here we offer up a few of our favorites from around New England. This issue of Boston Spirit magazine went to press just before the midterm elections. We sincerely hope we can include positive, progressive results from the ballot boxes down the street and across the country. But regardless of the outcomes, it’s extremely important to keep in mind achievements like these—to build upon and take to heart—as we move forward to face the challenges of a new year. These are the opening words in the federal appeals court ruling that upheld a 2016 lower court jury decision in favor of Providence firefighter Lori Franchina.
Federal court upheld Rhode Island lesbian firefighter’s discrimination ruling in January “Sticks and stones may break some bones, but harassment can hurt forever.”
Franchina, a lesbian, endured pervasive harassment and retaliation by fellow firefighters and the city’s failure to take prompt and appropriate action addressing her complaints. Along with upholding the lower court’s ruling, the federal court also upheld Franchina’s monetary award of approximately $700,000 on top of her legal fees. A spokesperson from the Providence mayor’s office said the city would not appeal the case any further, according to the Providence Journal.
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Connecticut governor nominated first openly gay justice to lead an SJC
According to the Connecticut Mirror, only about a dozen LGBT justices currently sit on any state supreme courts in the United States. Chief justice or not, Justice McDonald is one of them.
“Intellect, temperament and respect for the rule of law.” These were the top three qualities Connecticut Governor Dannell Malloy underscored in the state’s Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald upon nominating McDonald to become the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court back in January. Although the appointment was ultimately blocked by state Republicans, the nomination marked an historical achievement: McDonald would have become the first openly gay state chief justice in the United States. McDonald, a strong supporter of LGBT rights, maintains the seat on the state’s highest court he’s held since 2012. Prior to that, he was elected to the state’s senate in 2002 and worked to win the passage of a civil-unions law that
Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce opened for business The Massachusetts LBGT Chamber of Commerce may have filed their legal papers and officially opened for business by early 2018, but its hard-working bunch of organizers from local businesses and state-based corporations have been steadily focused on the effort since Governor Charlie Baker’s first executive orders after he took office in 2015 to make the state the first in the country to include
HRC, GLAD held back TrumpPence ban on transgender service people
LGBT-owned businesses in its supplier diversity program. Baker’s order meant that LGBT-owned businesses can join a program that already ensured participation in government contracting and procurement opportunities for businesses owned by people of color, women, veterans, and people with disabilities. But participating in the program proved a head-scratcher for many busy business people. That’s one example of where the new Chamber comes in—helping LGBT-owned and allied businesses, corporations and professionals take advantage of the program and thrive. “The Northeast corridor is just humming with business opportunity, and we are really excited to have an emerging local partner that can help us reach all of its business owners,” says Sam McClure, senior vice president of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. “The entire LGBT community and all of Massachusetts need to know they now have a local organization ready to partner with the NGLCC to bring greater economic development and empowerment to the Commonwealth,” McClure told Boston Spirit. “The economic potential is enormous.”
New England AGs urge for federal workplace protections based on sexual orientation In late March, Attorneys General T. J. Donovan of Vermont, Maura Healey of Massachusetts and George Jepson of Connecticut joined a group of 15 US state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief that calls for making discrimination based on sexual orientation illegal under federal law. “The attorneys general urge the court to join a growing number of federal appellate courts in recognizing that Title VII’s workplace protections extend to sexual orientation,” stated a press release from Vermont AG Donovan’s office. As Dana Kaplan, executive director of Outright Vermont, told Vermont Business Magazine, “It’s important that state officials look beyond state borders at federal systems in order to bolster protections for Vermonters. “While Vermont law protects people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, pushing for more progressive federal laws is an important part of supporting the LGBT community,” he said. “If we can improve any systems, policies and laws that say ‘we see you, you matter, and your identity is valid,’ that’s important.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and LGBT Legal Defenders and Advocates (GLAD) came out swiftly and strongly condemning the Trump-Pence administration’s announcement in late March that it’s once again attempting to ban transgender troops from military service. “The policy recommendation that President Trump approved flatly states that ‘transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition are disqualified from military service,’” noted the New York Times. “But it also largely gives the Pentagon the ability to make exceptions where it sees fit.” And thanks to federal cases filed by GLAD and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, “The plan has no immediate effect, as four federal courts have already issued nationwide preliminary injunctions stopping his ban from moving forward. This plan singles out transgender service members and would result in the loss of highly qualified and trained troops,” according to a GLAD press release.
More than 1,300 gay and bisexual men, transgender people, friends, supporters and volunteers attended as former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick received the Congressman Gerry E. Studds Award. The dinner, dancing to DJ Nate Bluhm, silent auction, art show and mingling made this year’s shindig once again a major, stand-out event of the year. The evening raised more than $780,000 in cash and pledges to support the life-saving services and programs at Fenway Health. Then, in April, 1,100 lesbian and bisexual women, transgender people, friends, supporters and volunteers attended the 2018 Dinner Party, which brought in more than $560,000 in cash and pledges to support Fenway. Diana Nyad, renowned athlete and motivational speaker, received the Dr. Susan M. Love Award.
Boston Marathon opened to transgender women runners Despite a rainy start, one bright spot in this year’s Boston Marathon back in April was that 2018 marked the first year that transgender women runners were officially allowed to compete in the event according to officials of the event.
Fenway fundraisers broke records Fenway Health’s 25th Men’s Event in mid-March was one for the history books.
“We take people at their word. We register people as they specify themselves to be,” said Tom Grilk, chief of the Boston Athletic Association (the Marathon’s organizing group). “Members of the
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LGBT community have had a lot to deal with over the years, and we’d rather not add to that burden.”
mission” fighting for equality for all Americans.
Rhode Island House overwhelmingly passed bill to ban ‘gay panic’ defense The Rhode Island House of Representatives passed a bill in May that would ban “gay or trans panic” as a legal defense for committing a violent act. The vote was 68 to 2.
Transgender Navy SEAL Kristin Beck delivered Boston Spirit keynote With her message of strength and empowerment, Kristin Beck, the first transgender member of the United States Navy SEALS, inspired a crowd of more than 1,000 LGBT professionals and friends at Boston Spirit’s annual LGBT Executive Networking Night in early May. The evening included more than 45 exhibitors, mingling and a series of side sessions geared toward professional and personal development. Beck served for 20 years as a Navy SEAL before her transition, taking part in 13 deployments. She was a member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group, the special counter-terrorism unit known as SEAL Team Six, and received multiple military awards and decorations, including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Now a civil rights activist, Beck was a key voice in the Congressional Bill to end discrimination toward the LGBT community and continues her “new
Gender-neutral bathroom bill became law in Vermont Vermont Governor Phil Scott said he hoped to send a “powerful message” in signing HB 333 into law on May 11. The bill makes it the law of the state that all single-user public bathrooms be gender neutral. “This is especially important for kids in school who face anxiety and bullying over something as simple as using the restroom,” Scott said at the May 11 signing ceremony. “Treating others in this way is not who we are as Vermonters, and I hope the signing of this bill will send a powerful message that that’s not the way we act.” State Rep. Bill Lippert Jr., one of the co-sponsors of the Vermont bill, said, “In the face of the kind of hysteria that has been generated around transgender restrooms in other states, this makes common sense. Because it really makes a difference for transgender people who want to use a bathroom where they feel safe. It is satisfying to take the next step forward.”
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If passed, a defendant accused of a violent crime would not be able to introduce the sexual orientation or gender of the victim as a defense. “I consider this commonsense legislation,” the bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Kenneth Marshall, told the Journal. “A victim is a victim, and no victim’s life is worth less than another’s because of his or her gender identity or sexuality.” “The legislation, which now goes to the Senate, would prevent the use of any defense in a trial that claims the perpetrator was either provoked, suffering from diminished mental capacity or attempting self-defense as a result of discovering the victim’s actual or perceived gender, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation,” according to a RI General Assembly press release.
Historic day for LGBT rights in New Hampshire Friday, June 8, 2018 was an historic day for LGBT rights in New Hampshire. Republican Governor Chris Sununu signed not one but two pro-LGBT rights bills into law: House Bill 1319, banning discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment and public accommodations, and House Bill 587, protecting LGBTQ minors from conversion therapy. “Discrimination—in any form—is unacceptable and runs contrary to New Hampshire’s Live Free or Die Spirit,” the governor wrote in a public statement following the signing of HB 1319. “If we really want to be the Live Free or Die state, we must ensure that New Hampshire is a place where every person, regardless of their background, has an equal and full opportunity to pursue their dreams and to make a better life for themselves and their families,” the governor’s statement read. As for the bill banning the harmful practice of conversion therapy, Devon Chaffee, executive director of the Granite State’s branch of the ACLU, issued an immediate response thanking “Governor Sununu for standing up for all Granite State minors
by signing HB 587. We commend all the legislators who supported this bill and thank them for standing in solidarity with the LGBT community. The enactment of this bipartisan bill underscores New Hampshire’s commitment to ensuring all Granite Staters are welcome and treated equally.” When HB 587 goes into effect in January 2019, New Hampshire becomes the 14th state—including Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont—banning conversion therapy on minors. Legislation is moving forward in Massachusetts and passed both house and senate in Maine though vetoed by outgoing Governor Paul LePage earlier this year. Maine’s current Democrat and Independent gubernatorial candidates voiced support for the law if elected.

P’town celebrated its first Pride Provincetown celebrated its first-ever Pride Weekend Festival in early June 2018. The event featured a 20-mile long global rainbow laser light installation, parties, cultural events and presentations, a drag brunch, a boat cruise, the first P’town Pride Sashay & Stroll to the Boatslip and more.
The first Pride Weekend commemorated the opening of the new LGBTQ center, “The Shack,” created to promote a healthy environment for all and foster diversity within the Provincetown community. Upon its official opening, The Shack began hosting talks and exhibitions to showcase and celebrate the lives and experiences of Provincetown’s LGBTQ community, and to provide resources, support and referrals, with a mission to inform, enrich and provide connections.
invited all of them to march in the spirit of Pride.
Boston Spirit Harbor Cruise’ Hundreds of happy cruisers set sail on a beautiful, balmy evening aboard the Provincetown II for Boston Spirit’s 15th annual Summer Sunset Sail. Every year, proceeds from this annual sell-out event, which welcomes in the summer and coincides with the culmination of Boston Pride festivities, benefit Fenway Health’s research and healthcare services.
Boston Pride: ‘Rainbow Resistance’ The theme of the 48th annual Boston Pride Parade, on June 9, was “Rainbow Resistance,” which harkens back to the parade’s roots, recapturing for these current political times the spirit of activism that brought together the first Pride marches almost 50 years ago. Tens of thousands from all stripes of the rainbow flag filled the streets again this year with more than 300 groups marching. Leading off this year were some 100 mayors from all over the United States. The mayors were attending the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which coincided in Boston with Pride week, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh
took their case against LGBT marchers all the way to the Supreme Court and won. Consequently, no LGBT group marched in the parade for the next 25 years. Bishop’s appointment, which came in mid-July, represents significant progress after an older faction of the organizers tried to block Outvets from participating in the past several marches. But the organizers were met with outrage from Southie neighborhoods, Greater Boston, the national press and ultimately the majority of the parade’s organizing group, which finally underwent a major shakeup. “This is a demonstration that we have moved forward,” said Dave Falvey, commander of the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, the parade’s organizing body. “It’s a different council. It’s a different parade.” “I never thought I would have the opportunity to run this parade,” Bishop told the Boston Globe. Now “they see me as a veteran who has organized large events and someone who is passionate about veterans. We’ve come a long way.”
Outvets leader appointed St. Patrick’s Day Parade overseer In a move that shows how times have changed in Southie, organizers of South Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade appointed Bryan Bishop, founding CEO of the LGBTQ US veterans group Outvets, to oversee the planning of the parade. The turnaround couldn’t be more dramatic. Back in 1995, parade organizers
Bay State mandated LGBT awareness training for aging service providers On July 26, Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker signed the first-in-the-nation law that requires that all state funded or licensed providers of services to older adults complete training in how to provide meaningful care to LGBT older adults and ensure that LGBT older adults can access services. California
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has a similar law, but training is limited only to those working in the field of long-term care. “It’s impossible to overstate what this is going to mean for LGBT older adults in Massachusetts,” said Lisa Krinsky, LICSW, director of Fenway Health’s LGBT Aging Project. “LGBT people are significantly more likely to age alone without a spouse or partner or children to support them,” she said. “They are in greater need of formal caregivers such as home health workers and visiting nurses or assisted living communities. They have valid fears about experiencing discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression and some even feel the need to go back into the closet.” “It is so important to have the state’s official recognition of this problem and a clear directive to come up with solutions,” Krinsky said.
Business leaders, leading associations support transgender rights Business leaders of more than 50 major organizations gathered at a July 31 event in Boston to stand together
as a leader in both national and local LGBT politics.
against the ballot referendum that would repeal nondiscrimination protections for transgender people in Massachusetts in the November 6 midterm election. More than 50 organizations—including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, State Street, Biogen, EY, John Hancock, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, MassMutual, National Grid, Partners HealthCare, Putnam, and Bank of America—attended the part mixer, part strategy session at the Eastern Bank headquarters in Boston’s financial district. As Freedom for All Massachusetts pointed out in a press statement, these business leaders had “one message to send to the voters charged with preserving the law at ballot box in November: When communities are welcoming places for everyone to live, work and raise families, businesses succeed as well.” What’s more, in early October, both the Bay State’s leading trade association and leading association of small business joined the long list of supporters of the Yes on 3 ballot question campaign—the bipartisan coalition working so hard to uphold Massachusetts’ transgender nondiscrimination law on the midterm election ballot this November 6. Regardless of the ballot initiative outcome, it is important to remember that these business leaders and leading business organizations voice strong support for transgender rights.
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Massachusetts Public Schools offer LGBTthemed curriculum Hallquist voted first transgender gubernatorial nominee by major party Christine Hallquist won the Democratic nomination for governor in Vermont’s primary on August 14, becoming the first transgender person to become a gubernatorial nominee for any major political party. “Tonight, we made history,” Ms. Hallquist said to her supporters at an election night party in Burlington. “I am so proud to be the face of the Democrats tonight.” “Christine’s victory is a defining moment in the movement for trans equality and is especially remarkable given how few out trans elected officials there are at any level of government,” said Annise Parker, the chief executive of the LGBTQ Victory Fund. “Yet Vermont voters chose Christine not because of her gender identity, but because she is an open and authentic candidate with a long history of service to the state, and who speaks to the issues most important to voters.” Regardless of the November 6 midterm elections results, Hallquist made history and equally important assured her role
Lessons on the 1969 Stonewall riots and writing by Langston Hughes and Willa Cather and other notable LGBT authors are all just part of a new curriculum that includes LGBT-themed history, literature and health education included in Massachusetts Public Schools this fall. “We talk about mirrors and windows,” Jeff Perrotti, director of the Massachusetts Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students, told the Boston Herald. “Students need to see themselves reflected and see others who are different from themselves. It is important that all students feel safe, valued and respected in school so they can be ready to learn.” “If students don’t see themselves in the curriculum, they are not as likely to pay attention,” said Commission Director Corey Prachniak-Rincon. “It is a huge demand we hear from teachers. They recognize part of the reason why LGBTQ students feel excluded is they’re not reflected and that part of their identity is ignored.” [x]
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they’re still going strong as business and life partners. The pair met working out at Mike’s Gym in the late ’90s but didn’t actually start dating until 2000 when they ran into each other in P’town on Labor Day weekend. Robb, a Boston native, had moved to NYC to study men’s wear at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Diaz, born and raised in Puerto Rico, had recently sold his printing and embroidery business. Long story short, they combined talents and the rest is history. What makes their designs so hot? As Robb puts it, from the start “our vision was to create our own brand of unique men’s pants based on our love of them—the word ‘Inseam’ refers to the measurement of the inside of a pant length. I had grown up wearing real khakis from Army-Navy stores as part of my school ‘uniform’ and Jeff wore the real deal in military school. Everyone said we were crazy because they are the hardest garments to manufacture, tricky to sell— and we wanted to make them in America? Well, it has been 17 years now and we have built quite a reputation for our pants, shorts and shirts. All our garments are still designed and manufactured in the USA.” Right here in Boston. [RP] inseamclothing.com
John Robb [LEFT] and Jeff Diaz
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CULTURE Music STORY Loren King
Miraculous Music Boston’s Handel and Hayden Society’s “Messiah” is both old and new It’s hard to image a more striking ambassador for baroque and classical music that Aisslinn Nosky, Concertmaster with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society (H+H). The dynamic violinist, out since she began her distinguished career as a professional musician, will again serve as Concertmaster, also known as first violinist, when H+H performs one of its most anticipated events of the year, three performances of the audience favorite “Handel’s Messiah” at Symphony Hall Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and Dec. 2. For the lay person, “Concertmaster” might be a confusing term. It means first violinist, or “master of the concert.” Back in the 18th century — Handel composed his oratorio in 1741 and it premiered in Dublin a year later — that role was akin to today’s conductor. As the size of orchestras grew over the years, conductors became the maestros that directed the entire ensemble, with concertmasters “more of a middle-management position for something like ‘Messiah,’” says Nosky, a Vancouver, Canada native who arrived
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in Boston in 2011 when she joined H+H. Known internationally as a soloist, conductor/director and concertmaster, Nosky returns to Canada in her role since 2016 as Principal Guest Conductor of the Niagara Symphony Orchestra. H+H launched its current season in September with the program “The Great Bach Concertos and Cantatas.” including Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3,” which Nosky describes as “justly some of the most famous music ever written.” H+H on November 9 and 11 performs Beethoven’s epic “Emperor Piano Concerto No. 5” and Schubert’s “The Great Symphony No. 9 in C Major.” Then comes “Messiah,” one of the society’s most popular programs and a H+H holiday tradition for 165 consecutive years. “‘Messiah’ is one of the most frequently performed pieces of music around the world,” says Nosky. Since the choral work traces the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it’s performed both at Christmas and at Easter. “It’s always a
festive atmosphere; [Symphony Hall] is always packed with people; it is often a family tradition at the start of the holiday season.” It’s more than just tradition, though; Nosky points out that the work endures because “it’s such a well-written piece with beautiful melodies woven through it. And the story is familiar, at least in Europe. There’s a familiarity of content and it’s catchy, beautiful and easy to listen to. I’ve heard people humming their favorite tunes as they’re leaving the hall.” H+H performs “Messiah” as it would have been performed in the composer’s time, with actual period instruments or replicas of those same instruments. “Other symphonies might use different instruments with different sound colors,” Nosky says. H+H performs with “the instruments Handel would have used when writing the piece. They bring a depth of understanding of his sound world and what he was trying to accomplish.” Even though audiences may not be able to tell the difference, she says, playing the music on historical instruments is important to the musicians who want to make “this music sound and feel like it was just written; that Handel was just finishing the
Handel & Hayden Society in rehearsal Aisslinn Nosky. PHOTO M. Marigold
[LEFT AND CENTER] [RIGHT]
notes this morning and the ink from his quill was still wet on the page,” Nosky says. “That’s what we’re going for. We have all studied the history of this music and the context in which it was written in order
to [perform it] in a way that Handel might recognize if he was in the audience.” Even though H+H has performed “Messiah” for more than a century, it is anything but a staid, old-fashioned piece.
Each season, guest conductors and soloists join the world-class musicians of H+H to bring new interpretations and new energy to Handel’s enduring masterpiece. This year, Bernard Labadie of Québec, a well-known expert in Handel and baroque music, will conduct the orchestra and chorus. Guest soloists are Lucy Crowe (soprano); Iestyn Davies (countertenor); James Gilchrist (tenor); and Philippe Sly (bass-baritone). “Messiah” may be a crowd pleaser but Boston’s classical music enthusiasts are just as likely to look forward to another annual tradition, H+H’s “A Baroque Christmas.” Performances are Dec. 13 and 16, with H+H performing music for the season from Vivaldi, Bach, Corelli, and more at intimate Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory. [x]
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CULTURE Dance STORY Loren King
Moving from Madonna to Opera
[ABOVE, LEFT]
Tod Machover. PHOTO Sam Ogden
[ABOVE, RIGHT]
Karole Armitage
‘Punk ballerina’ Karole Armitage helms ‘Schoenberg in Hollywood’ for the BLO Choreographer Karole Armitage was known as the “punk ballerina” in the ’80s and became the toast of the hip downtown scene in New York for good reason. She staged edgy, experimental dances for her own company, The Armitage Ballet and later Armitage Gone! Dance Company in New York. She’s also directed operas in Naples and Paris; choreographed for the Boston Ballet; Cirque du Soleil; and Broadway where she earned a Tony Award nomination for “Hair.” And, oh yes, she also choreographed Madonna’s iconic “Vogue” video. Next, Armitage directs the much-anticipated world premiere of Boston-based composer Tod Machover’s “Schoenberg in Hollywood” commissioned by the Boston Lyric Opera. It runs November 14–18 at Emerson College’s Paramount Center. Armitage’s boundary-pushing opera productions in major theaters across Europe
showcased her unique mix of maverick and traditional, a style that’s perfect for “Schoenberg in Hollywood,” about avant garde composer Arnold Schoenberg who fled the Nazis and landed in 1930s Hollywood to work on films. “I’ve been working in Europe over half of my career. European audiences crave a new approach to opera and I was always free to do what I wanted,” says Armitage. “People wanted to see [traditional operas] from a new angle so the heads of the opera houses started asking people like me to direct.” In 2004, she staged Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” with a feminist point of view at Het Muziek Theater in Amsterdam, Holland. “You bring your own time and personality to these things because you have to find your own identity in them in order to make them meaningful,” she says. “What I love about opera is that first, it’s great music and usually a great libretto
so there’s a lot to feed the imagination. With dance, it’s just you and emptiness [to start]. So it’s a relief from the nothingness of an entirely new project.” Armitage came to “Schoenberg in Hollywood” through her long association with Machover, who leads the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab’s Opera of the Future group. Armitage is in a multi-year Fellowship with the MIT Media Lab and worked with Machover on his opera “Death and the Powers,” which she calls “a wild adventure party” because of the amount of technology involved (it was a show about robots, among other things). She started out as the movement director for “Schoenberg in Hollywood” but when director Braham Murray, who’d long been associated with the production, suddenly died earlier this year, Armitage was asked to direct. “I was looking forward
to working with [Murray]. …Everyone wanted me to direct [but] I didn’t know if I wanted to take it on,” says Armitage. “But it was such a brilliant libretto; the music is wonderful, and I found my own take on it which is the key.” Armitage’s vision is to depict the “fascinating internal voyage of someone looking back at his life; [Schoenberg’s] mental reckoning as a man, an artist, a leader, a political and spiritual being. It’s an existential look at how you engage with being human in this multi-faceted context.” Armitage’s references include traditional Japanese Noh theater where there is “always a ghost who comes to the stage, and then finding ways to let go of regrets and pain through Buddhist liberation.” With Schoenberg, she says, “it is about going inside his mind, memory, imagination, desire. To me, that’s very liberating because you don’t have to tell a literal story. You can invoke everything from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to the Marx Brothers; the American optimist spirit versus the weary European. It’s remarkably rich and fun and spirited, as well as a beautiful meditation.”
“ Madonna came to me way before ‘Vogue.’ She wanted to be a dancer … she was incredibly disciplined about dance but she was not going to have a career [as a dancer]. Karole Armitage Besides Armitage’s many local artistic affiliations, from the American Repertory Theater to the ICA and the Boston Ballet, she was awarded in 2016 a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard University which, she says, led to the MIT Fellowship. “I never tried to have a career,” she says. “I’ve just done things that interested me.” It was that disciplined but free approach that likely caught Madonna’s attention in her early years in New York.
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“Madonna came to me way before ‘Vogue.’ She wanted to be a dancer… she was incredibly disciplined about dance but she was not going to have a career [as a dancer],” says Armitage. Madonna attended Armitage’s dance shows as well as the vogueing balls where Armitage served as a judge for years, an experience she calls “one of the most extraordinary things of my entire life, bar none.” Madonna “knew I loved it. What’s extraordinarily clever about her is that she knew the exact moment, culturally, when [vogueing] could enter into the mainstream. We talked about it for about five years before she put it in mainstream.” The 1990 video made history and is widely considered one of the best music videos of all time. Armitage views her contribution with characteristic humility. “Madonna realized it was about group dance, the organization of it, and she knew I knew how to do that. Two voguers, in particular, were phenomenal,” she says. “I brought out what they already knew how to do.” [x]
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Leonard Bernstein PHOTOS [center] Allan
CULTURE Multimedia Exhibition STORY Loren King
Warren, [right] Marion S. Trikosko, courtesy of the Library of Congress
All About Bernstein NEC exhibit, concerts pay tribute to legendary composer/conductor As celebrations of the 100th birthday of composer, conductor, educator and Massachusetts native Leonard Bernstein, who gave the world “West Side Story,” “Candide,” “On the Town” and many other stage and orchestral works, continue across the world this year, it is Boston’s New England Conservatory (NEC) that hosts one of the most comprehensive and multi-faceted retrospectives of Bernstein’s life and career. “Leonard Bernstein at 100,” a free exhibit, open to the public, continues at the NEC through Nov. 11. The exhibition, curated by the Grammy Museum, offers multi-media presentations and interactive displays designed to allow the visitor to access Bernstein’s creative mind and music legacy. There are artifacts such as his first childhood piano, his baton, the desk used to compose “West Side Story,” and handwritten score sheets for songs from that landmark musical
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including “America,”“Tonight,” “Maria,” and more. There are also more than 150 photographs, personal correspondence, costumes, furniture, and films including segments from Bernstein’s famous Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein was the first conductor to bring orchestral works to the general public through the medium of television with these popular concerts and his “Omnibus” series, which brought the works of Mahler, Copland, Stravinsky, and more into millions of living rooms worldwide. Bernstein’s Boston roots were deep. Born into a Russian immigrant family in Lawrence on August 25, 1918, he attended the Boston Latin School and later graduated cum laude from Harvard College. After Harvard, Bernstein enrolled in the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied conducting with Fritz Reiner. In the summers, he attended the newly formed Tanglewood Music Festival, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer music institute, where he studied with the Russian conductor, Serge Koussevitzky, who became his mentor. Bernstein conducted his final
performance at his beloved Tanglewood, in August 1990. He died two months later, at age 72. The exhibit’s wealth of information about the extraordinarily handsome and charismatic Bernstein does not shy from his sexuality. In the section “Behind the Genius: Family Man,” the wall text states: “Leonard Bernstein married the beautiful Chilean actress, Felicia Montealegre, in September 1951. Together, the couple had three children: Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. In public, the Bernsteins presented themselves as content and carefree. It was no secret, however, that Leonard’s life was far more complicated. Bernstein was bisexual, and he had many relationships with men throughout the years. “By all accounts, Felicia loved Leonard dearly and understood his homosexuality was an irrefutable part of him. Eventually, though, the double life fractured the marriage. The Bernsteins separated in 1976. They reunited a year later whereupon Felicia Bernstein was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died in 1978, with her husband at her side.” There is also information about Bernstein’s lifetime of social activism. He was
passionately involved in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and protested the war in Vietnam in the ’70s. Deeply distraught over the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Bernstein
dedicated his “Symphony No.3: Kaddish” to the slain president. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis later asked Bernstein to compose his theatre piece “Mass” to inaugurate The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. In the 1980s, Bernstein advocated for recognition of the growing AIDS crisis and funding for research and care. In 1989, he refused to accept a National Medal of the Arts in protest of the first Bush Administration’s policies toward the National Endowment for the Arts. But, first and foremost, the NEC exhibit is about the music. Two free concerts at NEC in November pay tribute to Bernstein, including the NEC’s Youth Chorale with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra which performs excerpts from “West Side Story” (Nov. 11); and NEC’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra which will be performing three dance variations from “Fancy Free,” Jerome Robbins’s ballet with music by Leonard Bernstein (Nov. 15). Bernstein was also on the music faculty at Brandeis University and the founder of the university’s Festival of the Creative Arts, which today honors his legacy as an
artist, educator, activist and humanitarian. Another exhibition, free and open to the public, is at the university’s Waltham campus to Nov. 18 and documents Bernstein’s life, work, Jewish identity, and social activism, with approximately 100 historic artifacts. As one of the first American conductors to receive worldwide acclaim, combined with his personal charm, charisma and musical genius, “Lenny” Bernstein’s impact on classical music and popular culture can’t be overstated. And interest in him shows no sign of slowing down. Two feature films about Bernstein are in the works, with Bradley Cooper and Jake Gyllenhaal attached to separate biopics about the legendary American composer. According to “Variety,” Cooper will direct and star in “Bernstein,” his second directorial effort following the success of his “A Star Is Born” adaptation with Lady Gaga. Gyllenhaal, meanwhile, is scheduled to play Bernstein in Cary Fukunaga’s “The American.” [x]
necmusic.edu/bernstein
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CULTURE Cinema STORY Loren King
First Love and Funny Underpants The annual Boston Jewish Film Festival includes LGBTQ films The Boston Jewish Film Festival (BJFF) reaches a major milestone this year, as it celebrates its 30th anniversary, making it one of the region’s most enduring and reliably solid film events. Running November 7–19 at venues throughout Boston, the BJFF has consistently offered LGBTQ-themed films in keeping with its mission of presenting a wide lens though which to examine Jewish identity across genres and continents. This year, one of the centerpiece films is the Massachusetts premiere of the Israeli feature “Red Cow,” an intimate drama from director Tsivia Barkai-Yacov. Set in an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, it and follows the sexual awakening of a teenage girl living with her widowed father Yehoshua (Gal Toren), an Orthodox Jew with extremist religious views including those forbidding homosexuality. Yehoshua leads a group of Israeli extremists who are raising a sacred red
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cow they believe will usher in a new age for Jewish people, allowing them to return to the Temple Mount. “Red Cow” was co-winner (with “The Dive”) of Best Israeli Feature Film and Best Debut Film at the 2018 Jerusalem Film Festival. The festival also honored “Red Cow” Avigayil Kovary as best actress. She plays the teenage Benny, who must come to terms with her longing and desire for the self-confident Yael (played by Moran Rosenblatt, who starred in “Apples from the Desert,” which screened in the 2015 BJFF). Rosenblatt has been nominated for an Ophir Award (Israel’s Academy Awards) as Best Supporting Actress for “Red Cow,” which screens November 15, 7 p.m. at the West Newton Cinema and on November 17, 9 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts. On the lighter side is the Massachusetts premiere of “David, in Brief,” a short documentary from San Francisco-based photographer and filmmaker. Jeffrey
Scene from “Find Your Tribe”
Braverman who will attend the BJFF screening. His 16-minute film is part of the “Find Your Tribe Short Film Program,” which features international short films that focus on people searching for community, sometimes in the unlikeliest of places, screening on November 17, 6:30 p.m. at the MFA. “David, in Brief” is a humorous look at a unique design on boxer briefs: a rendering in the crotch of the genitalia from Michelangelo’s David. A friend of Braverman’s bought the briefs from a street vendor many years ago after visiting the world-famous statue in Florence, Italy. Braverman did a photo series featuring men clad in the underwear, then made the documentary, which screened last year in San Francisco’s Frameline film festival. It includes conversations with Reb Irwin Keller, a drag performer turned rabbi; and Skyler Cooper, a transgender war veteran turned activist who talk with Braverman about their own “David and Goliath” moments dealing with self-esteem and identify issues. The Festival opens on November 7 with the Boston premiere of “Sammy Davis,
Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me” at the Coolidge Corner Theatre at 7 p.m. It’s the first major film documentary about one-of-akind entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., whose prodigious talents spanned vaudeville, Broadway, television, concerts and film while living at the center of tumultuous social change, from the Depression to the civil rights and anti-war movements. This opening night event begins with a live musical performance with local artists and concludes with a conversation featuring director Samuel D. Pollard. “I’ve Gotta Be Me” also screens on other dates throughout the festival. Born in Harlem in 1925, Davis started performing at age three and never stopped. He toured the country on the infamous segregated “chitlin’ circuit” with The Will Mastin Trio, tap dancing with his father and godfather. He was just 64 when he died of cancer in 1990. In interviews, Davis discusses the horrific physical and mental abuse he suffered at the hands of fellow GIs during World War II. He used his gifts for singing, dancing and impersonations to win allies but mostly to save his sanity. Starting in 1951, Davis’s career exploded as he
bright ideas begin at lucía
Scene from “Red Cow” took the nightclub world by storm with appearances at Ciro’s in Hollywood and later in Las Vegas as a member of Frank Sinatra’s legendary Rat Pack. After a 1954 car crash cost Davis his left eye, he converted to Judaism, the most famous black figure to do so, owing in no small part to the influence of his friend and mentor, Eddie Cantor. Show business legends interviewed in the film include Harry Belafonte, Billy Crystal, Norman Lear, Jerry Lewis, Quincy Jones and Whoopi Goldberg. But some of the documentary’s most searing sections are those that chronicle how Davis was vilified for his romantic relationships. Actress Kim Novak
describes how in the 1950s Harry Cohn, the tyrannical head of Columbia Pictures, threatened to have Davis killed unless he left Novak and married a black woman within 48 hours. Davis married Loray White for one year. In 1960, he was again lambasted by the press and public when he married Swedish actress May Britt. Paula Wayne, Davis’s costar in his early ‘60s Broadway hit musical “Golden Boy.” recounts how their onstage kiss resulted in death threats for both of them. Besides an entertaining look at Davis’s legendary life and career, “I’ve Gotta Be Me” is an important chronicle of racism in 20th America. [x]
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CULTURE Cinema STORY Loren King Théodore Pellerin as Xavier and Lucas Hedges as Jared in “Boy Erased.”
Love Wins ‘Boy Erased’ debunks myth of gay conversion Garrard Conley turned his experience with conversion therapy as a young gay man in Arkansas into his 2016 memoir, “Boy Erased.” The book was quickly snapped up as a film project with actor Joel Edgerton adapting it for the screen and directing, as well as co-starring in a supporting role. The film version of “Boy Erased” opens in theaters in November. Conley, who now lives with his husband in New York City, at first was wary about a big screen depiction of his memoir. “I was like, ‘This straight man is interested in this story; let’s make sure he gets it right,’” said Conley, 33, in an interview at the TIFF in September where “Boy Erased” screened. “To Joel’s immense credit, he sat with so many survivors of conversion therapy; he did so much research and listened to every one of my comments. My worry dissipated quickly.” Conley also praised “Boy Erased” star Lucas Hedges, who earned an Oscar nomination for his role in 2016’s “Manchester
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By the Sea” and played a gay teen in last year’s hit “Lady Bird.” “Lucas and I had such a close connection. He told me about his own journey when we first met. He was so open; he had every page of my book marked up,” said Conley, referring to a New York magazine story in which Hedges revealed he was, “Not totally straight, but also not gay and not necessarily bisexual.” “He’s the sweetest person in the world; he’s always real. He’s actually sweeter than I was,” said Conley. “The screen version of me looks a whole lot nicer.” In “Boy Erased” Hedges is Jared, a teenager wrestling with his sexuality while living in a small Arkansas town with his mother (Nicole Kidman) and Baptist pastor father (Russell Crowe). Shortly after moving into his college dorm, Jared is sexually assaulted by a closeted student he’d befriended, who then outs Jared to his parents. Although Jared does have a brief but positive relationship with an artist, Xavier (Theodore Pellerin), he gives
in to pressure from his father to undergo conversion therapy at a fundamentalist center called Love In Action. Edgerton cast himself as the evangelical zealot who runs the center with tactics including beatings and berating the paying clients to declare themselves sinners. Like another film this year, “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” the film exposes the insidiousness of conversion programs. Although discredited by mental health organizations worldwide, the practice is still legal in 41 US states. It’s for that reason that Conley considers the film one piece, albeit the most high profile one, of a multi-pronged effort to combat the disproven practice that attempts to “convert” an individual from gay to straight. Conley and the “Boy Erased” team have joined the creators of Radiolab to produce a podcast called “UnErased” about the history of conversion therapy in the United States and abroad. It debuts this fall. “The memoir is very internal; very queer. The movie shows parents how terrible it can be to do something wrong with your LGBTQ kid. It’s about the struggle of Jared and it honors that struggle but we’ve had lots of sad queer movies and I get that,” he said. “I wish, in a perfect world, that we didn’t need them anymore. But I have had so many emails from people reaching out to me who are still in the middle of this stuff that I thought, ‘here is an opportunity to save some lives.’ If it takes another sad queer movie, then it’s worth it. This is still going on now and not just in the United States but all over world.” There’s also the urgency of a presidential administration and some right-wing Republicans that support conversion therapy. “People are openly siding with religious fundamentalists, saying parents have the right [to subject their children to the practice] or that the practice is free speech and should be protected,” said Conley. It took Conley years to write about his experience, which took place in 2004. “I think I was so ashamed, once I was out on my own terms. It was like, ‘I can’t believe I ever agreed to that’ or ‘I can’t believe I was so stupid.’ I didn’t want to be seen as
a country bumpkin or an idiot so I never wanted to write about it because I thought it would make me look dumb. As I got older, it was impossible to ignore the rich material in that story and the way I could [use it to] show how bigotry works in a closed society. “That’s when I thought, ‘I have to throw away my ego.’ You don’t want to be seen as a victim. That version of me was 18 or 19 [years old],” said Conley, who’s now 33. In the interest of a compact ending, the film has Jared moving to New York and beginning his writing career. But Conley went into the Peace Corps for three years and taught HIV/AIDS awareness in villages in Russia. He then returned to the US and earned a degree in queer studies from Auburn University in Alabama before heading to Bulgaria to teach high school for three years “because I fell in love with a Bulgarian man,” he says. He moved to New York City, where he met his husband, when “Boy Erased” was published by Riverhead Books. Conley was the instructor last year for the memoir incubator program at GrubStreet, Boston’s independent
Joel Edgerton, who adapted “Boy Erased” for the screen and directed, also stars as Victor Sykes. creative writing center. Conley took a bus to Boston from New York every Monday to teach. “I’d love to return. It is a dream teaching job. I wish I lived in Boston. The mission of Grub Street is something I truly believe in,” he said. Edgerton said his desire to make “Boy Erased” grew from the 2016 film “Loving,” in which he and Ruth Negga played the real-life Mildred and Richard Loving. The couple in the 1960s successfully challenged state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Loving v. Virginia was cited as
precedent in U.S. federal court rulings that found restrictions on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, including the landmark 2015 Supreme Court decision. Edgerton says he realized how much “Loving” related to the broader issue of marriage equality. “‘Loving,’” said Edgerton, “planted a seed in me [about] telling stories of injustice. So when I read Garrard’s book, I had that same blood boil aspect but there was a lot of love in it, too.” [x]
Plan to take care of each other. A wealth plan that is thoughtfully constructed can help you provide for those you love. True wealth is not only about money. It’s about the relationships, interests and goals that bring you joy ... and what should be at the heart of your wealth plan. As a Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor with significant experience working with same sex couples and the larger LGBT community, I know every client’s circumstances and resources are unique. By understanding your total life picture, we will work together to build a solid financial plan so you can be more at ease enjoying those things that matter most. Building confidence in your future is my goal.
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Call me and let’s arrange a meeting. The appropriateness of a particular investment or strategy will depend on an investor’s individual circumstances and objectives. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”), its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. Individuals should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning and their attorney for matters involving trust and estate planning and other legal matters. © 2018 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. Member SIPC.
CRC 1982759 LGBT008 01/18 CS 9133493 01/18
CULTURE Stage STORY Loren King
Ring of Fire Homophobia at heart of play about champion prizefighter Emile Griffith Playwright Michael Cristofer remembers attending a New York City gay pride parade back in the ’70s. The grand marshal, waving to onlookers from an open car, was Emile Griffith. Christofer wondered, ‘Who is this guy?’ and was told that Griffith was a six-time welterweight world champion responsible for Benny “The Kid” Paret dying after their Madison Square Garden match in 1962. “People in the fighting world knew him right away. When the fight with Benny happened, they took Friday night fights off the air. So people who were boxing aficionados knew a lot about him.” Fast forward some 30 years and Cristofer—a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner for his 1977 play “The Shadow Box” and a Hollywood screenwriter best known for “The Witches of Eastwick” and “Gia,” which he also directed—wrote the libretto for “Champion,” a jazz opera based on Griffith’s life that was first performed
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at the Opera Theater Saint Louis in 2013. The idea came from composer Terence Blanchard, who’d worked with Cristofer on “Gia” and who’d been commissioned to write an opera. “Champion” earned strong reviews and continues to be staged. Cristofer had so much extra material that he shaped it into a play. “Man in the Ring” premiered in Chicago in 2016, and caught the attention of New York producers. Four-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif, who recently directed Cristofer, who’s also an actor, in Tony Kushner’s “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures,” jumped at the chance to direct. Boston’s Huntington Theater Company will stage “Man in the Ring” Nov. 16–Dec. 22 at the South End/ Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA before it heads to New York. Acclaimed stage actor John Douglas Thompson stars as older Emile who’s looking back on his life, with
Kyle Vincent Terry [LEFT] and John Douglas Kyle Vincent Terry playing Emile as a young man. “Man in the Ring” traces Griffith’s journey as a young immigrant from the British Virgin Islands who arrives in New York and finds work making delicate hats. But he has a powerful physique, so he’s pushed into amateur boxing competitions by an ambitious manager. Gregarious and cheerful, Griffith was open about his bisexuality at a time when no celebrities were, and certainly none in the sports world. The central event of Griffith’s life was the infamous match against Paret in Madison Square Garden on March 24, 1962. Paret taunted Griffith with homophobic slurs at the weigh-in. In the ring, Griffith pummeled Paret who lapsed into a coma and died 10 days later. Although he continued to fight, Griffith was never able to come to terms with having played a role in Paret’s death. Griffith later suffered from dementia and died in a nursing home in 2013, cared for by his “adopted son,” Luis Rodrigo Griffith. In doing research, Cristofer discovered that Griffith’s sexuality, at that time, wasn’t openly discussed the way it most certainly would be today. “You can only go by reports and quotes, but he seemed
to say, ‘Yeah, I like men; I like women; I like everybody; it makes no difference to me.’ Even if people suspected at that time, nobody reported it. I think probably that allowed him to be somewhat free. From all reports, he was a great, big, smiling, laughing, open guy, besides being physically gorgeous. People just adored him. I don’t think he was tortured by it.” Cristofer says that at the weigh-in, the Cuban Paret called Griffith a “maricón” (“faggot”) in a teasing, rather than hateful, way. “They had fought before and knew each other from the [Bronx] neighborhood in New York. They weren’t enemies and Benny wasn’t a vicious guy who maybe harbored his own homosexual tendencies. He just wanted an edge and was teasing [Emile]. It was flamboyant; in the photographs, they are smiling and grinning, not angry,” he says. But in the 12th round, “something flipped,” says Cristofer, and Griffith relentlessly pounded his opponent. “How much anger has [Emile] been sitting on? He’s this cheerful guy, but did he feel deprived, or was it shame that drove him?
Michael Cristofer Those are the kinds of things we tried to explore in the play.” Luis Rodrigo, Griffith’s adopted son and later his caregiver, came to see “Champion.” In the 1950s, says Cristofer, it wasn’t uncommon to hear of adoptions between male couples, especially if one was considerably older, which was the case with Griffith. “It was a common way to create a legal connection. I don’t know if that was the reason; Luis was young,
and had been in and out of reform schools. Emile [after he’d retired] went to Luis’s mother and asked permission to adopt him.” Cristofer says audiences respond to “Man in the Ring” for many reasons: the play “touches on immigration, dementia, being gay in the sports world” and the very human story of how Griffith dealt with his guilt over Paret’s death. Boston audiences will get something more: the chance to see John Douglas Thompson, “one of the best American stage actors we have,” says Cristofer, as Emile. “I think the critics are waiting for [Thompson] to get that role and this could be it. We did a workshop last fall in New York in front of 30 or 40 people and there was not a dry eye. I know people say that all the time, but this was extraordinary,” he says. “I’ve written a lot of plays—some were produced; some not. But not since ‘The Shadow Box’ has one really galvanized an audience the way this one does.” [x]
huntingtontheatre.org
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Calendar Rufus Wainwright: ‘All These Poses’ Anniversary Tour
‘Considering Matthew Shepard’ It has been 20 years since the murder of Matthew Shepard, a heinous anti-gay act that galvanized advocates and spurred progress around hate crime legislation. And yet, there is still much more work to be done. Music Worcester has tapped CONCORA, a Hartford, Connecticut-based choral group, for this special performance of “Considering Matthew Shepard,” composer Craig Hella Johnson’s moving full-concert work that integrates multiple musical styles with passages from Shepard’s journal, newspaper reports and other texts. The evening will benefit four local organizations still fighting on behalf of LGBTQ issues—Worcester Pride, Safe Homes, LGBT Asylum Task and AIDS Project Worcester. We would never consider missing it. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Sunday, November 11
Mechanics Hall, Worcester MA
musicworcester.org
Some artists take time to develop a fan base. Others come out of the gate with albums so good they turn into instant classics. Such was the case with gay singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright when he released his eponymous debut in 1998, followed by the similarly celebrated record “Poses” in 2001. Both works were overflowing with unabashedly queer songs, from the romantic “Greek Song” to the homoerotic “Rebel Prince.” In honor of the 20th anniversary of his arrival on the music scene, Wainwright is hitting the road to perform selections from both breakthrough albums, which paved the way for out performers still to come. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Wednesday, December 5
Emerson Colonial Theatre, Boston MA
rufuswainwright.com
Melissa Etheridge The iconic out artist is doing double-duty during her swing through New England. She’ll perform her “Holiday Show” when she hits the famously lesbian-friendly community of Northampton, Massachusetts in December, gifting some of her big hits among more seasonal selections like “Merry Christmas Baby” and “O Night Divine.” (Super-fans, take note: VIP packages are available, including a rare backstage tour with Etheridge.) But when she takes to Derry, New Hampshire the next night, Granite State guests will get the “Yes I Am 25th Anniversary Tour,” celebrating the album that brought Etheridge her mainstream breakthrough. And yes, its epic anthems—like “I’m the Only One,” “Come to My Window” and “If I Really Wanted To”—still sound big, bold and brave today.
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WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Saturday, December 1, (Northampton) and Sunday, December 2, (Derry)
Calvin Theatre, Northampton MA, and Tupelo Music Hall, Derry NH
melissaetheridge.com
John Grant Gay synth-rock artist John Grant is bracingly honest. His music has addressed growing up under the fire-and-brimstone threats of an orthodox Methodist household. He’s been candid about struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. And several years ago, he came out as HIV-positive on stage. So, if you ask us, it really means something that the singer’s latest album has such a sunny-sounding title—“Love is Magic”—and pivots to his most electronic-oriented sound to date, gleaming mid-tempo ditties served with sumptuous nu-disco flourish. In a time when love feels in short supply, we’re happy to hear a candid queer voice celebrate its transformative power. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Sunday, December 2
Brighton Music Hall, Boston MA
johngrantmusic.com
Holly Folly Sure, you may mainly think of Provincetown as a gay summer resort town—but it’s also a magical place to spend the merriest, gayest time of year. Before the Christmas rush hits, head down to P’town for Holly Folly, an annual multi-day marvel featuring piano sing-a-longs, dance parties, drag brunches and even a “Santa Speedo Run” to benefit local organizations. Plus innkeepers will break out their wickedest wreaths to upstage each other in the fiercest and most festive winter holiday decorations. It’s a fantastic way to get into the season’s spirit— and score some truly unique gifts from P’town boutiques while you’re at it. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Thursday, November 29–Sunday, December 2
throughout Provincetown
ptown.org/holly-folly
Laughter League Live Laughter is medicine, especially for kids. And for 23 years, the Laughter League has been writing prescriptions for belly laughs—especially at Boston Children’s Hospital, where the clown troupe brings smiles to young people who need the motivation that only a little dose of mirth can provide. This special “fun-raiser” show will support the growth of the team, so that it can bring cheer to even more patients and families across the country. Ticket options for the two-hour performance include a VIP package to meet and greet the clowns—so see if you can spot our favorite funny-man in the bunch, Dr. Mal Adjusted, AKA Queer Soup Theater co-founder Mal Malme. WHEN
WHERE
Thursday, Berklee December Performance 6 Center, Boston
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HOW
bostontheatrescene. com
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‘A John Waters Christmas’ If you’re looking for “It’s a Wonderful Life,” well—look elsewhere. This unconventional Christmas show comes from the king of cult cinema, so expect a one-man show that is appropriately subversive and silly, gift-wrapped with the artist’s colorful and queer sensibility. If you’ve already seen this annual spectacular—come back! Waters rewrites much of it each year, so you’re likely to receive all-new regaling about Christmas shopping, holiday memories and dinner party etiquette (or lack thereof). Guests can also ante up for VIP seats that include a post-show meet-and-greet with autographs and photos, so go ahead—stuff your own stocking with an experience you’ll never forget.
Billy Dean Thomas Thomas has big dreams. After all, the Jamaica Plain-based musician adopted the nickname “The Queer B.I.G.” (playing off legendary rapper Notorious B.I.G.). Luckily, their talent is outsized. They rap with the best of them; check out “Black Bach,” in which Thomas flows over a performance of “Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998” by Ben Verderey, guitar chair at the Yale School of Music. They were also among the standout LGBTQ artists in the Theater Offensive’s first Out’Hood Residency Program. Thomas’s music, infused with social commentary about issues like feminism and #BlackLivesMatters, lives up to hype—in a B.I.G. way.
WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Thursday, December 6
Berklee Performance Center, Boston
berklee.edu
American Classics: ‘Yip Yip Yaphank’ Boston’s very own Benjamin Sears and Bradford Conner are considered among the foremost scholars on iconic composer Irving Berlin, and back in 2010 the longtime duo was actually the first act to revive “Yip Yip Yaphank,” a musical revue written by Berlin when he was a World War I recruit at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York. Now Sears and Conner, co-producers of American Classics—an outfit focused on Tin Pan Alley, ragtime and other music genres central to US heritage—are bringing back the 1918-produced show for a centennial celebration. Hear songs like “Mandy” (which appeared in the film “White Christmas”) and “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” performed by the foremost Berlin authorities.
WHEN
Friday, November 2 WHERE
Oberon, Cambridge HOW
WHEN
americanrepertorytheater.org
Nov. 3 (Bedford), and Nov. 4 (Cambridge)
WHERE
HOW
Bedford, MA americanclassicsmusic.org and Cambridge
‘What the Dickens!’
For its 10th year, the Cambridge Youth Dance Program’s annual performance of “What the Dickens!” moves on up to a new Back Bay venue but brings the same holiday spirit to this unique interpretation of “A Christmas Carol” expressed through multiple dance styles—from ballet to tap to hip-hop to flamenco. The enchanting, timeless tale has a special exuberance thanks to the extraordinary skill of this celebrated pre-professional performance company—plus, it’s a chance to see out, gay Boston dance legend Clyde Nantais in the role of Scrooge. WHEN
WHERE
HOW
Friday, December 14–Sunday, December 23
John Hancock Hall, Boston
cydp.org
SCENE Sports PHOTOS David Whitman and Patrick Lentz
‘Fun in the Sun’ Sports Tea Dance dbar | Dorchester | August 26, 2018
Victory Programs teamed up with dbar and FLAG Flag Football to host its eighth annual #SummerSportsTea Dance and fall kickoff of the area’s 2018-’19 LGBTQ sports season. At this year’s event, six eligible bachelors and their chaperones from the Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence brought in nearly $2,500 through the bachelor auction. Plus, thanks to the generosity of over 500, guests, the event raised a grand total of $25,000 to support vital services at Victory Programs’ 19 health, housing and prevention programs.
SCENE Business PHOTOS Marilyn Humphries, Christine Hochkeppel, Thais De Marco Mapstone
MA LGBT Chamber of Commerce Launch Federal Reserve Bank of Boston | Boston | September 24, 2018
The Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce launched with a well-attended event hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Governor Charlie Baker received the inaugural “Massachusetts LGBT Business Inclusion Award” for his signing of Executive Order 565 that added LGBT-owned businesses to the state’s supplier diversity program. Chairman and CEO of Eastern Bank Bob Rivers, President and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Michael Carson, and President and CEO of PTC Jim Heppelmann were recognized for their leadership in establishing the chamber. Chris Juliani of Boston Chair Massage, Susu Wong of Tomo360 and Brenda Loan of innerOvation were also recognized for their contributions to the Chamber’s development. If you are an LGBT-owned business and want to grow your revenue or if you are a corporation committed to LGBT equity and inclusion contact the Chamber at info@malgbtcc.org.
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SCENE Benefit PHOTOS Priscilla Rojas and Maude and Cole Bascome-Duong
White Party 2018 Delft Haven | Provincetown | September 1, 2018
At the sold out 32nd Annual White Party benefiting Outer Cape Health Services, attendees raised over $60,000 while getting one last wear out of their summer whites and flexing their creative muscles with costumes like never seen before. David Cox and his Drowning Provincetown crew was in attendance creating the White Party’s annual YouTube music video. Tito’s Handmade Vodka, the Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the Crown and Anchor sponsored spirits, music and dancers that kept the party going all the way to a final toast to send off the summer of 2018 in style.
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SCENE Fundraiser PHOTOS CRI Staff
Harbor to the Bay 2018 Boston to Provincetown | September 15, 2018
Hundreds of riders and crew took to the streets for the 16th annual Harbor to the Bay bike ride to raise more than $310,000 for four AIDS service organizations in Massachusetts, including Fenway Health, AIDS Action Committee, the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod and Community Research Initiative (pictured here:). CRI is a New England communitybased nonprofit dedicated to HIV and hep C clinical research, treatment education, and financial assistance for approved drug treatments and health insurance coverage.
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SCENE Gala PHOTOS Sara Coklet Photography
Come Out and Celebrate Gala Verve Crowne Plaza | Natick | September 21, 2018
The sold-out fifth annual “Come Out and Celebrate” gala fundraiser for OUT MetroWest honored Grace Moreno, executive director of the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce, who has dedicated more than 25 years leading state and national nonprofits. Grace’s keynote speech on the importance of living an authentic life drew a standing ovaction from the crowd of 230 guests. The dinner also featured remarks from OUT MetroWest participants and parents. The evening raised more than $100,000 to support OUT MetroWest’s programs for LGBTQ youth thanks in part to corporate sponsors Converse, Eastern Bank and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
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SCENE Cabaret/Installation PHOTOS Courtesy Rick Miller
‘Mama’s Boys’ Club Café | Boston | October 15, 2018
A unique multimedia cabaret installation recently lit up the stage at Club Café. The show was inspired by psychotherapist and author Rick Miller’s “Gay Sons and Mothers,” which chronicles the unique bond between gay men and their mothers through interviews, videos and photos. The show featured videos and a multitude of artists from theater, opera, musical theater, drag, and cabaret with on-stage performances by local musicians, singers and actors including Brian Clague, Lucas Coura, Elbert Joseph, John La Bella, Rick Miller, John O’Neil, Brian Patton, Jim Rice, Adam Sutton, Verna Turbulence and Fred VanNess. Check out Miller’s project at gaysonsandmothers.com.
LET’S DANCE!
www.mochadj.com INFO@MOCHADJ.COM
SCENE Sports PHOTOS Courtesy FLAG Flag Football
FLAG Flag Football’s 20th Boston | October 4–7, 2018
Once upon a time a guy put an ad in Bay Windows newspaper to get people together to play football with other gays. That soon became a league with a mission of creating unity among the LGBTQ and ally community and has grown into a network of over a thousand players past and present. Over this past Columbus Day Weekend, Boston FLAG Flag Football celebrated its 20th anniversary with a homecoming full of highlights like a Kickback Karaoke party, an alumni game under Friday night lights, Friends and Family Day ball games, a drag brunch and a blow-out 20th anniversary party at Royale.
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NOV|DEC 2018 | 91
SCENE Drag Benefit PHOTOS David Zimmerman
Boston Drag Idol Club Café | Boston | September 22, 2018
Boston Spirit teamed up with Club Café to host the first annual Boston Drag Idol fundraiser for Victory Programs’ health, housing and prevention services. Six contenders took the stage and won the hearts of a cheering crowd and the praise of the three celebrity judges: WCBV-TV EyeOpener host Randy Price, reigning Miss Massachusetts Gabriela Tavares and Tiffani Faison, owner of Boston epicurian hotspots Fool’s Errand, Sweetcheeks and Tiger Mama. The evening was graced by the majestic mistress of ceremonies Verna Turbulence. And earning the coveted title of Boston’s next Drag Idol...Miss Violencia Exclamation Point! (See related story on page 16.)
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SCENE Awards PHOTOS Matt Kurkowski/Xocialight.com
HistoryMaker Awards St. Botolph Club | Boston | October 17, 2018
Boston LGBTQ community leader Orlando Del Valle was honored at the 2018 HistoryMaker Awards, The History Project’s annual celebration of leaders, activists, and organizations that make a positive difference. Plus LGBT Elders of Color received the 2018 Lavender Rhino Award at the fête. The HistoryMaker Award has been presented since 2009 to those whose lifetime achievements have had a significant and positive effect on Boston and Massachusetts’ LGBTQ communities.
[ABOVE (FROM LEFT):] Orlando del Valle, 2018 HistoryMaker, and Shirley Royster
and Paul Glass, co-chairs of LGBT Elders of Color, 2018 Lavender Rhino awardee.
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SCENE Gala PHOTOS InfinityPortraitDesign.com
Spirit of Justice Awards Dinner Marriott Copley Place | Boston | October 12, 2018
GLAD Legal Advocates and Defenders’ 19th annual Spirit of Justice Award Dinner featured powerful inspiration from Spirit of Justice Honoree Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker and leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, and from featured speaker Sarah Huckman, a young leader and advocate who was instrumental to the passing of a transgender nondiscrimination law in New Hampshire this year.
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CODA Song STORY Scott Kearnan
Bright Light Bright Light The white-hot indie artist has an illuminating new album His new EP is called “Tough Love,” but it’s easy to fall for Rod Thomas. The Welsh-born, NYC-based singer, songwriter, and producer—better known by his stage name, Bright Light Bright Light—radiates charm through sparkling electro-pop tunes that are romantic, wistful, hopeful and melancholic. His sound and aesthetic are frequently inspired by the favorite music, movies and pop culture of his childhood and teenage years: think heart-filled house beats fit for a ’90s gay club, and swelling saxophone riffs that could accompany the closing credits of an ’80s film. (His Bright Light Bright Light alias is a “Gremlins” reference.) But Thomas is very much an artist of the current Internet age, a do-it-yourselfer whose artful authenticity, lyrical earnestness and undeniably catchy compositions have made fans of out icons like Alan Cumming and Elton John; they’ve gueststarred on his songs, and Sir Elton even tapped Thomas as an opening act. Fresh off a tour with Erasure, Thomas comes to the Middle East nightclub in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Tuesday, November 13, to share songs from his catalogue and “Tough Love,” a call for personal selfcare in the era of social media. He took a few minutes to chat with Spirit.
[SPIRIT] How did social media impact the direction of “Tough Love”? [BLBL] It’s very easy to let yourself lose a grip on perspective and reality with social media. Just walking around today, I’ve seen dozens of people posing for endless minutes for one photograph that makes them look like they’re having the best day. That’s what we do now. We’re all guilty of that. It’s easy to become obsessed with social media. People are so reliant on participation and reinforcement and all these things: likes, shares, all this shit that really shatters our self-confidence. Some people really don’t care, which is a real gift. But for those who are affected, it is an incredibly powerful and dangerous force to have in your life.
k.d. lang in concert. PHOTO Matt Duboff
Rod Thomas
you close.” The gut reaction you have with social media is that you need to be close to everyone. Real life is not like that. Some people don’t bring out the best in you. I lost a friend to suicide earlier this year, so the EP touched on something that is really important and personal to me. [SPIRIT] Do you think gay artists have a uniquely important role to play in these wild cultural and political times?
[BLBL] I think every individual has a crucial role in this insane world that we’re living in. I’m [SPIRIT] What made you want to constantly depressed beyond address this on the album? belief by what is happening in America. It’s really blowing [BLBL] People have stigmatized my mind. I think it’s very mental health discussions important that everyone is for a really long time, and doing the best they can to be a conversations about how happy you feel—or how anxious good person—and to listen, as well. Everyone is shouting and or insecure you feel—need no one is listening. It’s such to be something that you’re problem. Every single living comfortable having, at least person needs to be working with yourself. You need to be at how to have a dialogue. honest with yourself about things that are good for you and not good for you. I’ve found [SPIRIT] There are a lot of ’80s there are people in my life that and ’90s references in your work. I don’t think are good for me, Why do those decades resonate? and it takes lot of courage to [BLBL] I think because those say, “You’re not good for my decades, they were my life, you’re not good for my mental health, and I can’t have formative years. It’s when I
96 | BOSTON SPIRIT
started paying attention as a young child to music and film. The humor in those decades really resonated with me: the farce, the silliness, the color schemes. I love the way things were created in those decades. [SPIRIT] What’s the best advice Elton John ever gave you? [BLBL] The biggest message he’s ever given me is: you can spot someone who’s parading themselves as someone they’re not from a mile off. They don’t tend to stick around. People who are more authentic do. I’m not saying you can’t have any exaggeration of personality or style! People think being authentic means dressing on stage as you do every day, and not having any pomp and grandeur. I think it’s about presenting your ideas in ways that are true to how you feel and dream. What I wear on stage is an expression of my personality. That’s who I am, that kind of color and fun. [x]
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