Monthly Archives: January 2011
New Gay Pride Festival Gearing Up in North Carolina
NORTH CAROLINA?
YEP!
“OBX Pridefest ” will take place June 24-26, 2011 at the Outer Banks of North Carolina in Nags Head .
The OBX has a reputation for beauty and affordability, and the fun you can have in the wild outdoors is unmatched for the value. Expect long isolated stretches of sandy, seashell-strewn beaches, really cool restaurants from the “funky dives” to four diamond fine dining, and affordable hotels and rental cottages right on the water. Take long walks with your partner or closest friends and explore the beach wilderness of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore park or visit four different lighthouses. Hang glide, kayak, drive or horseback ride on the beach. Explore the coast offroad in your 4WD or take a charter boat out to the gulf stream for trophy size tuna and billfish. Create your own fun on the Outer Banks of North Carolina!
OBX Pride Fest happens soon! Make your reservations with David!
Best Gay Cities
Minneapolis and Santa Fe ranked “gayest” cities in America
According to a travel piece
published in The Advocate,
Santa Fe is the second
“gayest” city in America.
The Advocate reports that RainbowVision , a retirement community for gays, lesbians and others in Santa Fe , “has raucous drag shows at the Silver Starlight Lounge.”
Mayor David Coss called The Advocate’s accolades fantastic. He said Santa Fe is a tolerant community and that includes being gay-friendly.
Ranked first on The Advocate’s list was Minneapolis. Las Vegas came in 3rd, followed by Orlando in 4th and Pittsburgh in 5th. San Francisco rated 11th.
WHAT? You would think SF would be at the top, right up there with New York City and perhaps Key West!
It’s the second year The Advocate has produced the list. Author Mike Albo writes that a “completely unscientific” but “still strangely accurate” method was used to generate the rankings. Using a statistical equation, The Advocate has come up with a diverse and surprising list of where gay people are living, loving, voting, and creating communities.
For each city, The Advocate added up numbers for Gay.com profiles, listed officiants for gay weddings within a 50-mile radius, openly gay elected officials, performances by lesbian sisters musical duo Tegan and Sara over the past five years, lesbian bars, gay and gay-friendly religious congregations and entries in YellowPages.com with “gay” in the business name or description.
The total for all factors was then divided by the city’s population.
A destination for gay and lesbian couples and singles, Santa Fe is home to many gay-popular and gay-owned shops, restaurants, and bars located throughout town.
Santa Fe received zeros for gay marriage officiants and Tegan and Sara shows, The Advocate says. But it made up for that with nine gay-friendly congregations, seven lesbian bars and four openly gay elected officials.
“Gay life in Santa Fe isn’t about being in a certain neighborhood or a particular part of town. The large gay lesbian population here is in every part of the city, throughout every business district, and fully integrated into Santa Fe life. There is no one place in which to find a gay-friendly hotel or restaurant or shop. Rather, gay and lesbian travelers are welcomed to Santa Fe as a whole. There are hotspots of course, but think of all Santa Fe as your destination with one place just as welcoming as the next.”
Santa Fe Travel
Bestowing the title of Gayest City in America on Minneapolis, could not have come at a better time. In early February, more than 2,500 participants are expected in Minneapolis to attend the 23rd National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change . This conference is just one example of how a welcoming community can also serve as an economic engine.
Over the past decade, Minneapolis has become the gay magnet city of the Midwest. It makes sense: People here are no-nonsense, practical, and don’t deal well with hypocrites.
Read About More Gay Cities at the Advocate
LGBT Travel Expo Comes To Atlanta Jan. 30th
Travel Expo Tour
is an exciting new event where you can learn about new travel destinations, rediscover old ones, find glbt friendly travel providers and get information to plan your next vacation.
Exhibitors will include:
Airlines
Hotels
Trains
Cruise lines
Car Rentals
Resorts
Exotic Destinations
Convention & Visitors Bureaus
Travel Magazines
The EXPO comes to Atlanta GA January 30th!
@Four Season Hotel 75 Fourteenth Street Atlanta, Georgia 30309
Noon – 5pm
Attendees will be able to get the latest travel information, get special travel packages and great deals from the very best travel providers as well as win great prizes.
Best Gay Cities.com
Police Chief’s Retirement Doesn’t Solve Big Gay Problem for Palm Springs
that Palm Springs police
Chief David Dominguez
would keep his job.
That determination came after the city’s internal review of police procedure during the 2009 Warm Sands neighborhood public gay sex sting. Dominguez was among those accused of making offensive comments against the gay men arrested in the sting.
Though state law prevents city officials from releasing any details on their review, Ready said, “I don’t believe one comment in his 30-year history should result in his termination.“I’m convinced that his statement, although inappropriate … was not made in any discriminatory regard.”
Then this past week, Dominguez resigned/retired .
Palm Springs may be considered a gay Mecca, but its reputation has been tarnished and tarred by a 2009 undercover sex sting that went terribly wrong.
SDGLN reports The scandal has sent Police Chief David Dominguez into an early retirement and created a public relations nightmare for the city and for tourism officials. (SDGLN and Ken Williams first broke the Palm Springs sex sting scandal and had access to key documents from the case and direct insight from the Public Defender’s Office, where they have important sources).
Many have questioned why the Police Department would conduct such an “old school” sting, a relic of years gone by when gay men were regularly targeted for harassment and humiliation by local authorities. Think of the Stonewall riots of 1969, when the gay community fought back against blatant discrimination and persecution by police and city officials – launching the gay civil rights movement.
Many have wondered why the sting operation employed attractive and muscular young police officers who dressed provocatively in tight jeans and wife beaters, and who lured men through sexually charged invitations and by rubbing their crotches. Did nobody on the police force consider that entrapment would be a credible defense?
SDGLN has followed the case since the beginning and you can read all the details about what happened – and what could happen at the upcoming Jan. 20 hearing on the motion to dismiss. Writer Ken Williams points out, “Palm Springs has hit a crossroads. The old guard that is resisting the rapidly changing demographics – the LGBT community is growing and thriving, now making up about 40 percent of the population – must give up antiquated ideas that it is OK to discriminate against gays and lesbians. The Police Department must start hiring gays and lesbians to represent the many faces of Palm Springs, and the city must start the healing process by paving the way. After all, the mayor is openly gay and he must lead by example and make Palm Springs a shining beacon of tolerance and diversity.”
Read the full article at SDGLN !
Best Gay Cities.com
GLBT History Museum Opens in San Francisco
is now finally open in San Francisco,
at 4127 18th Street
(between Castro and Collingwood).
This longtime dream marks the 25th anniversary of The Society. This museum is one of only two LGBT museums in the world and the only in the U.S.
The official opening is January 13, 2011. Until then, stop by and see the fabulous museum space during this preview! Remember, members and their guests are always free.
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender Historical Society (GLBTHS) collects, preserves, and interprets the history of GLBT people and the communities that support them.
If you can’t get to San Francisco, stop by the site and poke around !
‘Anti Crucifix’ Video Begins Screening ‘Museum Of Censored Art’ on Smithsonian’s Doorstep
The Museum of Censored Art
will open to the public on
Thursday, January 13, 2011,
on the Smithsonian’s doorstep, announced art and free speech activists Mike Blasenstein and Michael Dax Iacovone today. The free speech advocates will open the Museum of Censored Art in a mobile office trailer outside the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, where they will screen the film censored by the Smithsonian, “A Fire In My Belly” by the late gay artist David Wojnarowicz .
The work was part of the larger “Hide/Seek” exhibit of gay and lesbian portraiture currently at the National Portrait Gallery. However, the piece was removed Nov. 30 by Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough after anti-gay groups labeled it “anti-Christian.” The same groups that succeeded in having the Wojnarowicz film censored originally wanted the entire “Hide/Seek” exhibit removed from the Gallery.
WHAT: The Museum of Censored Art. “Showing the art the Smithsonian won’t.” A mobile office trailer converted into a temporary gallery exhibiting the censored film as well as educational materials about the controversy. URL: Dont Censor
WHEN: January 13, 2011, 11:30 AM . Normal operating hours will mirror National Portrait Gallery hours: 11:30 AM – 7:00 PM every day through February 13, 2011.
WHERE: 7th & F Streets NW, Washington, DC, in the curb lane on F Street outside the entrance to the National Portrait Gallery.
WHO: DC-based activists Mike Blasenstein and Michael Dax Iacovone — the “iPad protesters” who were banned from Smithsonian property after playing the film inside the museum on an iPad. Protest video: Protest .
“We are displaying this art on the doorstep of the National Portrait Gallery to restore the censored art to the Smithsonian, keep the censored art visible and accessible to the public, and hold the Smithsonian accountable for its actions,” Blasenstein said.
Gay Dallas Gears up For SuperBowl XLV Parties
A-list Celebrities, Star Athletes, Musicians and DJs will Come Together for Three Nights of VIP Parties, February 3-5, 2011
As the countdown begins to the first-ever Super Bowl in North Texas, XLV Party is gearing up with the announcement of its spectacular events. For three consecutive nights, XLV Party at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas’ historic Fair Park will showcase some of the hottest stars in the entertainment world to host the biggest celebrity-driven party in Dallas. Beginning Thursday, February 3, 2011, America’s Sassiest Lifestyle Guru, Steve Kemble, will host elite guests to Belvedere Vodka and Moet & Chandon Champagne’s red carpet events with celebrity DJs and musical acts like the Village People, Lena Katina of t.A.T.u. and Sublime with Rome.
“Being that it’s Dallas’ first-ever Super Bowl, I wanted to provide guests with a truly memorable weekend,” said Jason Hutchins, President of XLV Party. “Bringing together this all-star cast of performers and celebrities was just my answer. I am confident that the event itself will be just as exciting as the actual Super Bowl, if not more, and we are setting a new standard for Super Bowl parties around the country.”
To mark the official start of Super Bowl celebrations, three events have been planned on the field of one of the most historic sites in the city of Dallas, The Cotton Bowl in Fair Park. Featuring more than 60,000 square feet of tented space and a 5,000 square foot dance floor, guests will enjoy a night filled with pure entertainment. Village People, Lady Bunny, Cazwell and more!
Check it out at XLV PARTY and
see more about GAY Dallas on our site and the Dallas Tavern Guild !
Best Gay Cities.com
Barcelona to Erect LGBT Monument – Possibly near Gaudi’s Famous Sagrada Familia
piss the Pope off!
“In memory of gays, lesbians and transsexuals who have suffered persecution and repression throughout history. Barcelona 2011” –
that’s the inscription on the granite pink triangle the local authority announced today it would possibly place right opposite the basilica of the Sagrada Familia.
The Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudí’s unfinished masterpiece, is one of Barcelona’s most popular tourist attractions. Construction on this church will continue at least until 2041, but it has already become Barcelona’s most important landmark.
The announcement – in a statement – came just weeks after the Pope consecrated the building, and faced a mass kiss-in on his route through the city.
The park opposite is currently being re-modelled, and Barcelona’s city council said it’s a perfect central location for a monument to the LGBT community, which will no doubt become a place of pilgrimage in the way that a similar site in Amsterdam has.
Not everyone was thrilled. The leader of the opposition Partido Popular in Barcelona described the decision to put the monument opposite such a potent symbol of the Catholic Church as “pure provocation” and demanded the decision be reversed. Those in favour – who include transsexual activist and actress Carla Antonelli – can’t understand their opposition, and ask whether the PP is arguing that the persecution and assassination of gays is somehow “less detestable than any other crime”, or worse, that it’s something the party approves of.
As of this afternoon, council sources have indicated that the site opposite the basilica has now been ruled out, and that the city’s Sculpture Commission will soon make the final decision as to where the LGTB monument should go. We’ll keep you posted.
