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 - ?

Ring Them Bells

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats, waiting to hear how the Astro Coffee talent show turned out. Since I was gabbing about it so much.

Well it turned out to be crazy fun!  Like, actual crazy.  First of all, you have to see this hall to believe it.  It was super conveniently located just off I-94 at Central and if you blink you miss it, it's that tiny and nondescript.  The inside, however, was anything but nondescript.  I don't have many photos from the night, but this shot of the stage should give you a good idea:

OK, so could it be more perfect?  No way.

Anticipation was palpable as the crowd, an eclectic and electric jumble of Detroiters-about-town, got their beer buzz on and watched the karaoke warm-up.  Sometimes I am not sure if naming names veers into gossip blog territory, so I think it is easier to describe the crowd in general terms.  Folks from many factions showed up to give support, but if you have to break it down it pretty much was hipsters and gays.

As you might expect, there were karaoke highlights even before the talent show began. Event masterplanner and Remains of the D blogger Ryan Schirmang hit a high note while hitting the high notes in the Rolling Stones' "Miss You."  ACLU Power Puff Roland Leggett and man-about-town Stephan performed a dazzling "Proud Mary" to a rapt audience.  Also the guy who runs the karaoke sang a bunch of long songs (Don't you always laugh when they do that?  "OK we have time for two more songs, so I'll be doing Rapper's Delight."  God bless 'em.)

But the main event was of course the Talent Show.  And what an impressive display of talent!  Phil Cooley and Jeff Anderson (in ninja garb) kicked it off with a spooky rendition of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" accompanied on the Casio keyboard.  Dave Mancini's talent was supposed to be drinking a pitcher of beer in ten seconds, but it turned out to be the boot-and-rally.  Good job Dave!!

There was more playing and singing (who did that cool rendition of "Bang Bang"?), and I can't really remember too many other acts before it was my turn on account of the nerves.  Then I got to perform my little song and dance, just me and my tambourine and this Liza showstopper. 

In a gay one-two punch, I was followed by the comedy stylings of Robert M. Nelson, who had the crowd roaring (the gays had tears of laughter running down their faces by the end, although one straight fella told me it was the filthiest act he's ever heard.)  Good job Robert!!

I was super happy that blog reader Miss Cindy Elmwood decided to come to the event and perform too!  She straddled the queer/hipster divide by performing NOT ONLY a song by the Magnetic Fields but also Lady Gaga on the Casio!  Music really does make the people come together!  And all with that fabulous wig - good job Cindy!!

After the show a bunch of the guys who work at Supino's set up their instruments and their band was awesome, everyone was dancing!  Good job Pizzateers!!

When the winners were announced it should come as no surprise that the gays swept the awards.  Hipster irony may be entertaining at the bar, but the gays really know how to razzle-dazzle!  And we take our performing seriously.

Third place went to Robert M. Nelson for his comedy (I told him he didn't have enough jokes to ironically not laugh at).  Second place went to Roland for his karaoke Proud Mary (he didn't even officially enter the talent show and he still beat Robert, it was that great!).  And first place went to me, naturally, for my amazing talent of a complete lack of shame!  Good job Supergay!!

Realistically, I think my win was a thanks for the great job I did of reeling in the queers. So I really want to take a second to thank all the gays for turning out in such large numbers, and giving the event an unexpected element that really helped make the evening a gigantic and entertaining success!

And congrats to the whole event committee for creating the most fantastic benefit I've been to in forever.  I hope thousands of dollars were raised and Astro Coffee will be caffeinating even sooner because of it.  And to the tremendous crowd who paid good money to watch an admittedly crazy show.  And to all the people who pull together to make the city a better place.

Good job Detroit!!

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