Out on the Town

There are a couple events in the SE Michigan LGBT community that really should be on your "don't miss" list.  Motor City Pride is a big one, of course, and fortunately you get the rest of the summer off because if you are involved with it in any way you will be exhausted.  Another big one is coming up though, Michigan Equality's State Equality Dinner.

This annual dinner has been going on for some time, and it's a standout.  It brings together so many different people in our LGBT community into one room, it's like a one-stop gay networking shop!  Long-time activists, prominent community members, straight allies and the next generation of leaders all mixing and mingling at a "family" reunion. The evening also recognizes outstanding leaders who have worked hard to advance Michigan's LGBT movement.

This year the State Equality Dinner is a standout because the keynote speaker is Cleve Jones.  If you are an astute film viewer you will recognize the name from the movie Milk, where a young Cleve Jones is shown working with Harvey Milk in the pioneering days of the gay rights movement.  If you are an astute student of LGBT history you will recognize Cleve Jones as the founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

When I was a youngster living in the gay ghetto of Washington, DC, I went to see the Quilt during its display on the National Mall in 1992.  I had maybe a mild interest in gay rights issues at the time, but more concern about HIV/AIDS (this was the pre-drug cocktail days, remember).  But mostly I was a gay kid more preoccupied with decorating my apartment than engaging with the gay community for more than a night at the bar.

My visit to the AIDS Memorial Quilt was an insane eye-opener about the extent to which AIDS was ravaging the gay world, and a huge early lesson about how many straight friends and family also really deeply cared about what was happening. People were mostly silent as they walked through the acres and acres of quilt panels, looking at highly personal memorial after memorial.  Volunteers stood by with boxes of tissue for those who were overcome, which were many - it was impossible not to be moved. 

I wish I could say that viewing the Quilt was an immediate call-to-arms for me, but it took a while for me to really start to realize there were things I could personally do to help.  It is something I can still remember vividly, though, and when I think about my current interest in working within the LGBT community, that experience is one of the early seeds.

A few years back I was at Common Language bookstore and picked up Cleve Jones' autobiography, Stitching a Revolution.  It's a great read full of info about the early gay rights movement, and it shows how the call to action isn't necessarily a deliberate choice, it can simply be a reaction to what we see happening in the world. For the gay historian, the casual activist and even just the curious, it's a recommended read.

You may not be the next Cleve Jones, but you can hear him speak (and maybe meet him) this Saturday night!

State Equality Dinner and Catalyst Awards

Saturday, October 22^nd

The Henry, Dearborn (formerly the Ritz-Carlton)

Featuring a VIP reception, silent auction, formal dinner, and an afterglow celebration.

Standard ticket: $150

VIP ticket: $250

Afterglow only: $50 (featuring DJ Jace)

All proceeds benefit the programs of Equality Michigan.

Tickets are available at www.equalitymi.org/dinner, or by calling 313-537-7000, x108

The Sweetest Hangover

I'm a bit late in reporting back, but Motor City Pride in Hart Plaza was amazing.  And if you've ever been to ANY Pride before, you know walking away saying it was anything better than "fine" is unusual.  But it really was.  I was so ... proud.

Organizers estimate 44,000 people attended over the two days, which is incredible.  Between the Lines did a nice writeup of the event, so instead of re-hashing it all, I'll link to it here.  Let's just sum up and say it was incredibly diverse, Oakland County did not stay away, and everyone seemed to have a really great time.

The rainbow stripes on the Ren Cen were one of my favorite things!

Other local media did the obligatory puff piece with photo gallery of all the festival gayness (yours truly not excepted), which I thought was pretty lame given the fact this marked a gigantic jump in visibility in an area with essentially none.  I mean FOR REAL - it was big news that Movement/Electronic Music Festival had 99,000 over three days, but 44,000 local GLBT people gets the boilerplate article?  I guess the story was only interesting when Ferndale Pride and Motor City Pride were at odds with each other.

About that ... apparently by the time June rolled around, most animosity about Pride's move seemed to have dissipated, and from what I heard the Ferndale events were nicely attended and everyone was happy.  I fully intended on checking it out but the addition of a Pride parade on Sunday morning meant any free time was filled planning for that.  Maybe next year I'll plan better.

In Detroit, everyone is a star! Especially Robert M. Nelson!

Everything else went great too.  The Pride Project came together beautifully and I got great feedback from both the Detroit indy businesses that supported Pride as well as the folks at Motor City Pride and Equality Michigan about it.  I even had some other businesses approach me to be included next year!  Please be sure to check out that website again and thank (and patronize!) anyone who participated!

A few very nice posters of the Pride Project placed around
Hart Plaza attracted no end of attention.

Finally, the Friday night Pre-Pride Doggy Style was out of control.  Who knew a downtown gay night on a Friday could attract so many people?  Someone open a downtown neighborhood gay bar NOW.

People who need Doggy Style are the luckiest people in the world.

After all the Pride Projecting and Doggy Styling and Fierce Hot Messing and Hart Plaza-ing and Parading and everything, I was the closest to exhaustion I've been in my adult life.  If I had a normal job I'd have had to call in "Proud" on Monday, I was that worn out.  To me, that's a great Pride.

The most incredible thing about this Pride was that for the first time since I moved to Detroit, I actually really felt like being gay here was totally normal.  I mean as completely normal as it would be in Chicago or Washington, DC or Boston or anywhere else I've lived.  Everywhere you went there were gay people or rainbow flags or just people asking how Pride was going.

In my email to business owners for the Pride Project I said that Motor City Pride moving downtown had the potential to change perceptions about Detroit in a way that hasn't happened since the Superbowl was here in 2006.  In the way Pride exceeded every expectation, I really believe that was the case.  What I didn't expect was that it was going to change the way *I* thought about Detroit.

The whole weekend left me feeling a little feisty, like maybe it's OK to say that something can just be GAY for its own sake without people getting defensive or worrying that people will feel left out.  (It's Detroit, for God's sake. The Island of Misfit Toys.  Everybody belongs.)  By foregoing a gay identity in the name of not offending anyone, we actually diminish our ability to create our own community, raise our own visibility and maximize the positive impact we could be having on Detroit.

This post is long enough without hashing out all that in 2000 words or less, so let's just say Pride left me thinking "what if ..." a lot for a long time afterward.  And it's been a while since I really looked at Detroit that way.  I'm sure I'll elaborate soon enough.

SO! It's been a recuperative and reflective couple of weeks, and that's why it's taken so long for even a little reporting back.  But now that I can finally deal with this stuff again ...

Double Rainbow: Oh My God!

This Tuesday night is a big gay double feature, starting with the Model D Speaker series "Gay Detroit"!  Join an expert panel of judges as we discuss the state of gay culture & community in Detroit.  I'll be sitting on the panel in my first official public appearance.  It's a real Detroit gay meet-and-greet!

The event is followed by a Town Hall discussion presented by Unity Michigan.  The Model D panel will be a little more community-oriented (and certainly City-oriented), and we'll let the folks with Unity Michigan handle the heavy stuff.

To make it extra special, there's a post-panel Doggy Style!  Yes, you can't get enough!  It all happens at the Park Bar, starting upstairs at 5:30 and ending sometime after midnight in the gutter.  Please join us, and help keep the Pride momentum going!

Model D Speaker Series: Gay Detroit
Charles Pugh of Detroit City Council, Roland Leggett of Equality Michigan, Kirsten Ussery of the Downtown Detroit Partnership and Villages CDC, and me.
Tuesday, June 21, 5:30 - 6:30pm
The Park Bar, 2040 Park Ave. (upstairs)
Pre-registration is encouraged.

Unity Michigan Town Hall: Equality Action
Denise Brogan-Kator from Equality Michigan, Shellie Wiesberg from the ACLU, Curtis Lipscomb from KICK, and Laura Hughes from Ruth Ellis Center.
 7:00 - 8:30pm

Hot DP (Double Panel) Doggy Style Action!
9pm - ?