I have a love/hate relationship with LGBT films. Overall, I enjoy films with gay themes but find most of them ‘color-by-numbers’ or slutty without substance. Weekly, I surf Netflix, desperate for a great gay release, only to suffer through 90 minutes of bad acting or yet another film consisting of a gay man who can’t deal with the fact he’s (trigger gag reflex) gay. Luckily, a tremendous amount of great foreign films (I Killed My Mother, Plan B and Weekend) and a few U.S. releases (Save Me, Codependent Lesbian Space [...]

“Pride is love, pride is respect for yourself.” – Aretha Franklin, “A Deeper Love”   You don’t have to be Gay or Lesbian to have pride, but you probably won’t see straight pride parades anytime soon. “We haven’t seen a straight pride parade because the world is 90-something percent straight. They don’t have to have a pride, because that’s already the way it is,” said local musical talent Lucifers Axe when I spoke to him at this month’s Gay Guy Happy Hour (G2H2).   G2H2 is a monthly event that ‘provides [...]

On August 18 and 19, 2012, the Second Annual Fabulous Independent Film Festival (FIFF) will be held at Burns Court Cinemas in the historic Burns Court District of Sarasota. Festival founder and organizer Magida Diouri is excited to expand the annual LGBT film festival to a two-day event, showcasing up to six features and five shorts. Diouri states she is seeking films illustrating LGBT acceptance and coming-of-age issues. She plans to select at least one foreign film but has yet to determine the title. Presently, Diouri is in negotiations with foreign and [...]

I arrived at Sarasota’s City Hall on Monday, May 21 at 5:30 p.m. to support the creation of a Domestic Partnership Registry for the city, but I decided to take a trip around the block before parking to see if red shirts (supporters of the registry) were gathering at any other access points. To my surprise, my instincts were right: A sea of red shirts were sitting at the tables outside one of the entrances — “my people” had arrived. My people aren’t gay or lesbian. They aren’t liberal or [...]

This week Step Out Sarasota‘s Vice-President Carroll Hunter asked me to join him on “The Black Almanac” on ABC-7 to discuss gay marriage with Dr. Ed James, the host of the show for over 40 years. Dr. James contacted Carroll because of his history with Florida Legal, Inc. (a fraternal organization of Gay & Lesbian Law Enforcement Professionals) and his trailblazing experience as an advocate and activist for the GLBTQ community. Recently, when the City of Venice unanimously voted to add non-discrimination clauses for LGBT people into their city charter, Carroll was there representing Step Out Sarasota and our community. [...]

Diversity: the Voices of Sarasota will celebrate its 15th anniversary as a revered gay-friendly Southwest Florida chorus by presenting “From Gershwin to GALA” at the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center at Holley Hall. The concert will be a preview of Diversity’s performance at the GALA Choruses’ Festival 2012 held in Denver, Co. GALA Choruses, an international association of GLBT choir groups, holds such a festival every four years, attracting 180 singing groups and 5,000 singers from around the world. In the past, Diversity has participated in GALA festivals in Montreal and [...]