Calendar Update!

Time for a big ol'queer calendar update! I promise I'll try to cover all the big stuff for you guys! Please note that all images are from the website or the Facebook page of the event listed.


If you haven't heard about Penny's "private" party at Adonis now, clearly you have not been paying attention. Bitch is working her heels down making sure you join her and all five hundred of her closest friends at Annie's (right up the street from Adonis) this Friday at 10:00pm. It's an open bar from 10p-11p, so it is worth it to get their early. You just have to print off this flyer to get in and par-tay! Check out the event invite.


Meet Milk, Cincinnati's queer and queer-friendly summer underground party scene, debuting at Below Zero on May 27th. I had the chance to speak to the organizer this weekend at the Guerrilla Queer Bar party at Little Bit party, and, aside from being gorgeous, he's a smart guy who's dedicated to good music and great dancing. Word is that he's got some pretty cool shit lined up for all of us to party to; it's all about music, kids. He played a sampling, and it sounds like it will totally be worth it Add Milk: Summer Underground.


PrideLove -- Cincinnati's experiment with queer *gasp* dating -- is coming back, this time to BronZ. Fabulous Della R. (who says that she and I will be BFF's, which I'm totally down with), who owns the business, has a great event lined up: Speeddating! Take five minutes to go on quick dates with men you have never met before, leave perhaps with a husband! Add in some fantastic drink specials, and it sounds like it will be yet another successful event. Check out their event invite for May 30th from 6pm-9pm.


The HRC will be hosting its monthly First Friday event, going out to bars that you normally would not see them out.. making new friends and new connections. Next month, the event takes place at Crazy Fox Saloon in Newport at 8pm. Check out the event invite.


Below Zero Lounge will be hosting the Ohio LGBT Democratic Caucus, kicking off Pride on June 12th at 5pm. Cover is $35 and gets you membership into the caucus. Check out the event invite.


I am so excited to mention this event, as it's being hosted by our friends at the Kentucky Equality Federation and Marriage Equality Kentucky. Tickets are a little expensive -- $50-$150 -- but a portion of that goes to our local GLSEN, and the majority of it goes for fighting for marriage equality in the Bluegrass State. Pop Singer Briant Kent and Gay Comedian (comedienne?) Ryan Hill will be performing. Advance purchase is necessary for attendance, and I hear that they are selling like hot cakes! Check out the event, or the Facebook event, for June 20th at 8pm at Adonis, followed by an after party at Yadda Club.

Please note that Equality Ohio is looking for Pride Volunteers for the entire state, and Squealing with Pride here in Cincinnati is also looking for event volunteers! Pride is next month, kids, can you believe it????

From Penny Tration

I'm totally forcing Penny's hand. She posted this on her Facebook as a note, and I think this is what the Anonymous commentator on my last blog was talking about when he mentioned the drag queen. 

Which I think is completely unfair, considering how much Penny does.

There have been a lot of changes in the Cincinnati GLBT Community Center and the Pride Committee has been negatively affected….Cincinnati may have no Gay Pride Celebrations this year. It’ won’t be the first time we’ve missed out on Pride Celebrations, but it’s a bummer no less….it’s also just a big gay rumor – and it got me to thinking about Pride.

You see – most of us who are part of the active gay community are pretty much over the Pride Celebrations in Cincinnati. Its a couple too many things:

1. It’s too expensive!

After the Pride Committee pays for extra police, permits, access and sanitation it ends up costing a small fortune. Each participant ends up paying about $100 plus the cost of the float or booth and no one really puts any effort into making a float or decorating a booth (with a couple of exceptions, of course)

2. It’s too early in the morning!

If you participate in the parade you have to be there by 11am, lined up and ready to go. I don’t need to tell you what a drag queen looks like after working until 4am, getting a half hour nap and getting back up to put on more makeup (and a big pair of sunglasses) to be back in Clifton by 11am. Mind you – the parade doesn’t start until 1pm, but they make us line up early anyway. It’s miserable and HOT as hell….nothing like the Ohio Valley in June….

3. There is no Parking that makes any sense in Northside and everyone ends up pissing off the entire neighborhood by parking in “their spot” for half the day. Then after the parade, you have to walk about 65 miles to find your car (and potentially get out of drag and attempt to celebrate with your friends).

So, you see, for those of us that are “active” in the community, the Gay Pride Celebrations are our least favorite activity of the year. Many people don’t even think we need a Gay Pride Parade at all and the festival in Hofner Park is much less “festival” than it is flea market with a beer truck. What’s the purpose??

Well - The Cincinnati Gay Pride Celebration and Festival isn’t for those of us who are active or participate. The Celebration isn't for the people on the street watching us slowly make our way down Hamilton Ave or buying rainbow bead necklaces from a vendor. It’s not for the people who are inside one of the Northside bars doing their best to Stimulate the Economy!

The Cincinnati Pride Celebration is for all the people who haven’t yet had the courage to join us. It’s for all the gays who watch the newscasters uncomfortably report on the odd display of feathers, streamers and rabbis decked out in the rainbow colors making their way thru a secluded section of Cincinnati. Those people need to see the gays who feel like they need to hold out a sign and march down the street all the while saying that it’s okay to be just that; gay and celebrating openly. It is for them that we still fight for equal rights and it is for them that we pay too much, get up too early and bitch about parking. It is for them that we need this celebration – to coax them out of the seclusion that they believe is necessary to protect their lives.

Of course, having said all that, a Pride Parade is not the only way to celebrate. There are many options on the table for maintaining a visible celebration – one of them is a Big Gay Party at Sawyer Point or on Fountain Square and there are many others.

Remember, when you’re headed out to your Pride Celebrations (or maybe even a Mr/Miss Ohio Gay Pride Preliminary Pageant in a town near you) that you’re doing all this celebrating so that other gays can find the courage to celebrate for themselves one day. Your reveling in your gayness is an act of giving to those who cannot yet revel – and you should be proud of yourself (wink).

And there’s my One Penny’s Worth (smile).

Oh and I'm posting her Vlog #6 because she's so loved over here and I like to see her smiling face. :-)

And that's my Penny's worth :-). Apparently, I just like to cause problems.

Pride Logo -- Take 2

Hm. My post on the 2009 Cincy Pride logo is the most popular ever, and the most commented on. Seriously. Organize a 700-person protest, a lot of silence...

...talk about something as silly and flippant as a logo, and everyone starts chatting. Meh. It happens.

I am not one to back down from criticism where criticism is due, but I'll say this: in a weird way, I like the theme. I'm shocked that I had the revulsion I originally did, or that so many people continue to. It's campy as hell, and I think the shirts will sell out because it is such a joke. Was it approached that way? Hell no. It was presented in all seriousness and, when we did bring it up, those of us critics were attacked for not being involved. Sell it as something fun.

If it's camp, it's absolutely fabulous, and I'll be the first to buy a t-shirt.

It plays off so many brilliant ideas and jokes and sillinesses that make up the Cincinnati gay community that I can barely contain myself. It plays off the bestiality jokes; it plays off our history as the pork capital (which is a joke in and of itself); it plays off the sexual innuendos of "pig sex;" all the while tying everything into the innumerable pigs dotted around the city... while making fun of it and making it our own. As camp, it's absolute brilliance.

I doubt that's what it was intended as, but, in my era of playing nice(-r), I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

I also think the organizations and participants of the Pride Party should take up the theme and make it a good ol'fashion ho-down. I like cowboy hats and overalls, especially on men. I would love, love, love to see it played up and see what, say, Adonis comes up with (guess: overalls and muscle boys and twinks).... or GLSEN (my guess: rural schoolhouse?). I think this is Shooters' year to blow us all away. Or the Serpent :-).

That said...

It's not a great logo, for one purpose: it will turn out blob-like in a copy machine. The cost of printing that is going to be egregious. I mean, it's a really nice image and it plays into the whole theme really well... but logos need to be simple, easy to scratch out, easy to remember, easy to copy, easy for you to doodle somewhere. The incarnation is more of a banner.

I mean, I would like it if it were part of a general exhibit of the theme itself, but I'm not too hot on it as a logo.

That said...

I have news for people who criticize the critics: just because they are being critical does not mean they are wrong, and just because they aren't doing what you ask them to do everyday mean that they have no rights to talk.

Guess what? 99% of the people who benefit from and/or involve themselves in your events/etc. will not be there to plan or put it together. In the end, of the 7,000+ people that will attend Pride, less than 100 of them will say they had anything to do with Pride in the first place except to turn out, hang with friends, and get stupid drunk. And it's not us bloggers you're going to have to answer to...

...it's them.

Consider us the more vocal version of the masses. Not really. But wouldn't you rather here it from us so that you, whom you do hear from rather than lash out at random 20-something twink boys at the parade the day of? We're vetting you. Prove to us that it's worth it. Don't lash out and attack us for not being involved.

Guess what? Blogging is involvement.

I don't hear you criticizing any other person in the city for not being involved. If you'd like, we can start naming people with absolutely nothing to their name in terms of accomplishment other than being the treasurer of so-and-so organization (that was not directed at any in particular, I promise, I was just making a point). We are doing what we do best, us critics.

We're being critical. And, in the end, that could be good for you.

That said...

I think we have been unfairly critical, including myself, of the process at times. Pride is a big event and there aren't nearly enough people involved. And they are doing the best they can with what they have, which isn't much (money, support, time, etc.) -- but that's a perennial problem for everyone. In the end, we all get drunk and have a good time and life goes on as normal.

They went out on a limb. It could have been awful and boring like "Unity through Community." I'm glad they are trying something new and different. Huzzah on them. I hope they try something new again next year.

That said...

I always hope for more than I get at Pride. I've been going for years and I have yet to say I had this amazing time that blew me away. I find myself wandering the circle over and over again, hugging everyone I know, and then getting a beer and thinking, "Well, now what?"

That said...

None of this really matters. There are bigger things to fight about, and fights to pick with bigger people with more power and importance than the Pride Planning Committee. In the end, it's nothing, and it will continue on ad infinitum until someone with a lot of vision, time, and connections takes over. As it always was.

But, in a time period where we're seeing a renewed sense of urgency, activism, and desire to change, don't we have better things to deal with than the freakin' Pride theme?

That said...

To both sides: the bits on my Facebook are excellent that should be brought up. From darling Penny Tration: keep 'em talking. And from Miss Chanak (via John Zeh): All press is good press so long as they spell your name right.

Aren't we giving Pride a lot of coverage, right now? And aren't we involving the community in a necessary discussion about the direction of Pride?

I'm just saying. Controversy can be good, too.

That said...

Oh. I'm done. I hope I've offended everyone. It was totally my purpose this morning.

Oh, and in a bit of glorious irony, I became a fan of the Gay & Lesbian Community Center on Facebook. Seriously.

Pride Web Site?

...is there one? PrideIsAlive.com is not it.

In fact, searching Google for it turns up the above website (albeit Cincy related), but the only place I can actually find information on the dates of Cincinnati Pride is here.

Pride's been added to the list to your right.

Pride Comedy Show!

Yea! One of my dearest and favorite events of the entire Pride season has been announced -- the Court's Pride Comedy Show!!!

Thanks to Miss Chanak for the update...

Folks - Just chatted with Gene Sell of The Court (I.S.Q.C.C.B.E) - and the Court is doing a fundraising event - for the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Greater Cincinnati. Enjoy a night of comedy, live singing and drag...

Pride Alive Show
Location: The Syndicate
18 East 5th Street
Newport, KY

Date: Wed May 27th
Time: Door open 5:30 pm - show begins at 7 pm

Contribution:
Reserved Seating - Tables of 8 - $100
Open seating - in non-reserved section - $10 per person

Money raised at this event will be given to the Gay and Lesbian Community Center to support the Gay Pride Celebrations in June. Some of the money raised may be set aside by the Community Center for the building fund for future growth.

The restaurant at the Syndicate will be open if you wish to arrive a little early for dinner.

For tickets/information, contact Gene Sell at 859-781-3299. All Checks must be made out to the I.S.Q.C.C.B.E.

Now, I'll admit, the last two years I went were kind of so-so, but I don't think Gene was involved. In fact, last years' was so bad, I even performed and I'm hardly worth squat in a performance. But, it's moved locations and Gene seems to be back on board, so it should be an amazing event!

2009 Cincy Pride Logo

Thanks to JereKeys...

Thoughts? Reactions?

Cincy Pride Planning Falling Apart

I got a phone call the other night while I was still in my PJ's from a certain MH who is on the Pride Planning Committee.

Apparently, he was at the meeting and no one else came. His comment: "Surely not everyone could have forgotten about it?"

My guess: 1) it's really close to the holidays, and 2) no email was sent out.

I hope it doesn't fall apart... the momentum was good.

Well, except I'm not viewed as a media source.

And I never actually heard about the logo design contest...

...and the only emails I got were from MXC about updates to the listserv...

...hrm...

...no more comments, because now I'm just being a bitch.

(My previous post on the subject.)

CINCY GAY SCENE: Pride Planning Committee Meeting

I attended the (X) meeting of the 2009 Cincinnati Pride Commitee Meeting last night at Little Bits Bar in Clifton Heights. This was the first time I had actually been to a meeting hosted by "his eminence," Joe Penno.

I was moderately impressed. Moderately.

Structurally, Pride itself is not changing, it seems this year, except for minor adjustments (the Saturday Festival, for example, changing times to start and end earlier, for example) and a few additions (including an attempt to get real entertainment and possible 'Party Bus' to appease the ever problem of the whining of downtown bars). However, things are far more organized this time around than they were at this point at any of the meetings I ever attended over the now deposed queen of the Center and all Pride -- wait, that was only her self-styled title. For that, I applaud the new (and large) organizing committee, though I wonder about how many of those people stick around for May -- myself included. I seem to remember that I bolted from Cincinnati the day of the Parade last year.

Joe also seems to be consolidating the organization and adding some well needed energy to the planning process -- thank the goddess.

Unfortunately, my own primary complaint seems to be so ingrained in the structure that I wonder if it will ever be possible to break: why the hell do we still have the Parade on Sunday? The Parade should be on Saturday and the Drag Races on Sunday. But that's neither here nor there and representative of a more systemic issue. (And one that's too late to change, at this point, but I do like to complain as much as possible.) There is an addition of a logo contest to go along with the, regrettable, theme this year of Squealin' with Pride 2009. It's like they went to the Serpent one evening and asked every coked out bottom what would be a good theme.

Regardless, I maintain two complaints: one, with a few exceptions, the organization is dominated by well-off early to middle-middle age white men with more money and connections than they know what to do with. And, the second complaint, they do a lot of sitting around wondering (and I quote) how to get the "younger folks" out. Geez.

Not saying I know how, but I can be sure that referring to them as "younger folks" over and over again is probably not the best set up for an impressive turnout :-).

My own bitchiness aside, I'll keep going and I'll keep reporting. But I leave you with three questions:

1) What would you like to see at Cincinnati Pride that you've never seen before?
2) Who would you like to see at Cincinnati Pride as a performer? (the dream list included people like Margaret Cho and Kristine W. . . I'll be interested to see what they can pull off)
3) Since most of my readers are "younger folks," what would bring you and everyone you know to Pride in Cincinnati this year?
4) Why is anyone still pretending like the Greater Cincinnati GLBT News is read by this target audience? I liked how their promotional ideas were keyed around two things: Michael X. Chanak's massive email list and the GLBT News. I'm sure there are no other ways that gay people in Cincinnati get their news or information... I'm sure I don't know of any. God I miss Sam and Q-City.

Oh, and a spoiler: Cheryl Eagleson and John Maddox have been tapped as the Grand Marshalls. I don't think that was confidential information, I'll see what kind of response I get.

Next Meeting: November 18th, 7pm @ The Metropolitan Community Church in Northside. Mistress Cody, my dear vlogger, I may ask that you attend with.

PS Also met a cute boy last night ... but there are some things to... consider first.

CINCY GAY SCENE: Two events of interest...

I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't talk about these. Kind of funny how I hadn't even thought about them...

1) From Miss Chanak here:

Joe Penno, Cincinnati GLBT Pride Chair 2009 and Community Center President - reminds you the first planning meeting for Pride 2009 in the Greater Cincinnati Area is Tuesday August 26, 2008 at 7 pm.

The location of the meeting is the Community Center at 4119 Hamilton Ave, Northside (Cincinnati), Ohio.

Please make a note of it.

I may actually go to it, although my explosive personal behavior and subsequent disappearance on the day of the parade may make my role there somewhat questionable.

If I do go, though I'm somewhat outspoken, I may try to keep my mouth shut and listen for a while first.

2) It's that time again... Pride Night at King's Island...


I'm not going, but I feel I should announce it. I'm not much of a rollercoaster person.

And, when I get a moment, I'll talk about the Gay & Lesbian Community Center in greater depth before the event. But, also, I don't have the money and it's the first week of classes, so I will not be going.

Sad. But not really.