Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Hanky Code for iphones

From Towleroad.com: "Twenty years after Keith Haring wrote in his journal that AIDS had marked the end of street pick-ups and seven years after Manhunt began, cruising is making a comeback in New York. A new breed of young gays I spoke to last week say they’re learning about the look-back, the stop, the double-look back, and the approach all over again. On the heels of this news comes word that the hanky code, the popular 70’s phenomenon where gay men placed one or more colored handkerchiefs in their left or right back pockets to indicate sexual preference, has been having a resurgence on the West Coast. Now Jonathan Leach and Karl Burkart, two entrepreneurs from California, have created an application for your iPhone that creates a virtual hanky that you can stick in your back pocket. I spoke to Jonathan last week to find out if this is the next wave in technological gay sex advancements, or a step in the wrong direction.

BUTT: How did you first get interested in the Hanky Code?
Jonathan: When I moved to Atlanta in 2004 there was a gay bay there called Fierce. I knew the owners and we had this fantastic group of friends that would go there Thursday and Friday nights. We got together and decided we were going to take back the hanky code. So we made posters with a graph of the hanky code explaining what all the colors meant and bought a ton of hankies and handed them out. The idea was that you would grab a person and mix and match your hankies and have fun. We ended up having hanky code night almost every Thursday for quite a while. They were just a lot of fun.

And this led to you creating the iPhone application?
Yeah, I tend to keep the bar flyers and also any posters and everything from the Hanky Code nights. One day I was taking a shower and I got out of the shower and I was looking at the wall and I saw the hanky code poster and I had just bought the iPhone. And I thought ‘I wonder if there’s any app for the hanky code?’ I went into my bedroom typed hanky code into the iTunes search and it showed up that there wasn’t a hanky code app. So I started thinking that maybe it was something I wanted to develop. I got together with my friend Karl and we spent the weekend just planning it out.

How does it work? Is it like Grindr?
Not really. Suppose you were at a bar and you saw someone with a real hanky in their back pocket, you could just pull up the app real quick, click on the color and it would give you the meaning. The app also will light up your screen with a picture of whatever hanky you are so the iPhone actually becomes the hanky. If you’re at a coffee shop or a restaurant somewhere and you’re working on your computer you can have your iPhone to the left or to the right of your computer or your coffee and guys walk by and the notice it and they’re like ‘hmm.’

How many different options/ colors are there in the Hanky Code?
The color options are limitless and go into things ranging from car keys to doilies. To start with the first version though, we selected about thirty or so of our favorite colors to get people use to it.

Can you explain a little bit of the history of the hanky code?
Oh it has a rich history. The hanky code began in the mid-to-late nineteenth century with male miners and cowboys in San Francisco who, because of a shortage of women to dance with, were forced to dance with other men, and so they used hankies in their back pocket to say that they would dance the male or female role in these square dances. Then it got picked up by gay men again in the 70’s and re-appropriated as a secret sex code. It was a way of putting yourself out there but in a safe category so that that straight people and police and the people that would be out to harm you wouldn’t understand it. It was a very important step in coming out of the closet.

So why bring it back now? Doesn’t having a secret code when people are coming out at more rapid rates kind of go backwards a little?
I think gay culture is going back into the closet, but more of a digital closet. With an app like this, people see the phone to the left or the right of you, they see your face, you know they understand the color or they can look it up. You’re not back in that digital closet. You’re not on Manhunt or somewhere looking at profiles in the privacy of your home. You’re out and you’re seen.

But with the hanky code, it seems to narrow down what sexual options are out there, and place walls in between different types of sexual fetishes. How will people who have multiple fetishes and desires be able to use the Hanky Code?
I don’t see it as categorizing preference at all. The hanky code offers the freedom of adding anything you can stuff into your pocket or tie around your neck to establish a preference. In the case of wanting to look for more than one thing, stuff your pockets as full as you want and advertise.. I think that most gay men can narrow it down to a few things in a pinch, and if they need more.. I guess they will just have to find jeans with a lot of back pockets.

Do you have any memorable hanky experiences of your own to share with us?
Oh yes, my favorite story about wearing hankies happened a few months after I moved to San Francisco. It was late on Sunday when I was gathering my clothes so that I could take them to the laundry mat. Before I left I noticed a pile of hankies in the corner of the closet that needed to be washed. I arrived at the laundromat, started doing my laundry, and noticed a guy across from me playing an arcade game and made eye contact. This continued well into the drying cycle and had progressed to the level of repositioning our cocks in order to offer small previews of size and length. By the time the buzzer on the dryer rang, we had already had our first conversation and were well into a foxy game of touch and stroke. Time was against me though as his laundry was finished and I still had to fold and pack mine up. Knowing this, he kindly offered to help and drive me home so that I did not have to brave the climb back up my street.

Opening the dryer, hankys of several colors and meanings flopped out and his eyes lit up. He asked which hanky was my favorite. I answered in all honesty that the brown lace worn right would be my choice. He asked what it meant. I answered ‘uncut if worn left’, ‘likes uncut if worn right’. He told me he could help me out with that given that he was Brazilian. Next thing I remember was opening the door to my apartment and showing him the way to my bedroom where I proceeded to check out his claim and indeed he pulled out one of the finest uncut specimens of the male penis I had ever seen. We romped for quite a while and as I walked him out I noticed it had just turned 1:30 a.m. and my laundry had still not been completed..

The Hanky Code iPhone app is available on Itunes, or at HankyCode.net.

Interview by Adam Baran"

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Chase Park Plaza Hotel Falls Behind in Rent

From STLtoday.com: "The downtown Renaissance isn’t the only St. Louis hotel that’s struggling financially. The majority owner of the Chase Park Plaza disclosed today that the operator of that landmark hotel is $5 million behind on its rent.

The disclosure comes in a conference call script attached to a quarterly financial filing for Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT I, which is based in Addison, Texas. The real estate investment trust bought majority ownership of the Chase Park Plaza in 2006. In the script, chief accounting officer Bryan Sinclair says:

We lease the Chase Park Plaza hotel and its operations to our five percent partner in the investment, and due to the challenges faced by the hospitality industry, this partner has been unable to meet its full lease obligation to us. Accordingly, in the third quarter, we recognized a five million-dollar reserve for the unpaid rent balance. In addition, we reserved five million dollars for straight-line rent adjustments due to requirements — under GAAP — that rents are to be recorded evenly over the entire term of the lease.

The company has previously been optimistic about the part of the Chase Park Plaza that’s being converted to condominiums. In today’s filing, chief operating officer Sam Gillespie says the REIT expects to use $25 million in tax credits to “significantly reduce” a $108 million loan against the property."

Atlanta Eagle Bar Patrons Sue Police Over Raid

From Towleroad.com: "On behalf of 19 individuals forcibly searched and detained by Atlanta police on September 10 at the Atlanta Eagle gay bar, Lambda Legal is suing the City, the Chief of Police, and 48 officers, the group said in a press release:

"Dan Grossman, co–counsel in the case, has been working with victims of the raid since that night. "I’ve listened to dozens of stories from patrons who were mistreated by police at the Atlanta Eagle that night," said Grossman. 'The Atlanta Police Department is not above the law. They do not get to search and detain people who are not suspected of any crime.' On September 10, the Atlanta Police Department dispatched about twenty to thirty officers to the Atlanta Eagle, including its 'Red Dog Unit' dressed in SWAT team gear, but inside the bar the APD found no public sex, no drugs, or illegal weapons. During the raid, patrons of the bar were forced to lie facedown on the floor while background checks were run on everyone. Eagle bar patrons heard antigay slurs; were forced to lay in spilled beer and broken glass; and one was forced to lie on the floor even though he had injured his back in the Iraq War. Not a single patron was charged with any crime."

Said Supervising Senior Staff Attorney Greg Nevins: "The illegal activity going on in the Atlanta Eagle that night was committed by the APD. If it is APD procedure for elderly men and wounded veterans to be thrown to the floor and harassed simply for being in a bar having a drink after work, then the APD should change its procedures."

Monday, November 16, 2009

Maine's Oldest Gay Bar Closes

October 10, 2009 from Mainetoday.com:
"LEWISTON -- As a gay teenager and young adult, Michael Martin had few places to turn to in Lewiston.
Sure, there were support groups and other organizations for young gay people, but they offered just once-a-week or once-a-month meetings. Not real camaraderie. Not community.

However, the Sportsman's Athletic Club did.

"When I was 15, I would hang out in front of the bar, which wasn't a good thing to do," said Martin, now 36 and manager of the place. "But it was the only spot. The only spot. And once I did turn 21, I was welcomed with open arms. They made you feel comfortable about yourself."

For more than 30 years, the gay bar on Bates Street has been an important part of life for many in the gay community. It was a place where they could find friends, dance with a same-sex partner without worry, be themselves. Outside the bar they might be harassed, bullied, told they were going to hell. At Sportsman's they were accepted.

And because of Sportsman's, the wider community started to accept them as well.

"I think it paved the way," Martin said.

But all of that will end tonight. Sportsman's, the longest running gay bar in the state, according to the former owner, is closing.

"We're calling it the curtain call," Martin said. "The end of an era to a legendary bar."

When Sportsman's opened on Lincoln Street in 1958 it was originally geared toward straight people. Roland Blais turned it into a gay bar when he bought it in the mid-1970s.

"They needed something gay up here," he said. "It was in demand. If something's in demand, you go for it for business. There's no place for gays to go. That way they can go to the gay bar and be themselves."

He moved the bar to Canal Street, then Bates Street. Over the years the bar became known for its mix of people -- both gay and straight -- and for both its cozy atmosphere and vibrant dance music.

"It's always been pretty much a homey type bar, very comfortable setting," Martin said. "But it can become very crazy, too. Usually after 9 o'clock at night when the younger crowd comes out and they want to dance and party. That's when things pick up and get loud."

But even early on, Sportsman's was more than just a place to grab a quiet drink or party to re-mixed pop music. The bar represented a community whose members, led by Blais, helped raise money for AIDS, took canoe trips, played volleyball and climbed Tumbledown mountain. In the early 1990s, Blais helped fight for equal rights for homosexuals in the city.

"This is America. This is supposed to be equal," Blais said.

In more recent years, bar patrons have traveled en masse to gay pride parades.

About four years ago Blais sold the bar to Marc Mason, who also owns the Acme Social Club in Lewiston. Blais had run Sportsman's for about 30 years. It was time, he said, to retire.

"I was burned out. I'm 71 years old. I'm not young anymore," he said.

Martin has managed the bar for the last four years. He said business has dropped over the years, that the economy has affected Sportsman's. The business has been sold. He believes the building is slated to be torn down.

Mason could not be reached for comment Friday.

The bar's closing was at first kept quiet. Martin said he wasn't comfortable with that, so he recently began telling patrons.

"These people have been dedicated to this place much too long to be shut out to the truth," Martin said. "I said 'No, enough's enough.' I think it's time they know so they can prepare themselves."

Martin expects a large crowd for the last night tonight, including a few patrons who started coming when Blais opened the place as a gay bar -- and are still regulars.

"I call them our ancients, and we treat them like gold," Martin said.

The bar will open at 6 p.m., an hour early, to accommodate the crowd. A New York DJ, who worked at the club in the 1980s, will perform that night. The bar will also host various performers, including its popular drag queens.

The bar will close at 1 a.m.

"It's going to be emotional," Martin said.

Martin believes homosexuals are more accepted now than they used to be -- and he credits Sportsman's for some of that -- but he also believes there's still a need for a place where young gay people can gather.

"One thing I've noticed, when one club closes another club usually opens. I can't say for fact that one will, but I'm hoping and praying for their sake," he said. "

Montreal's Oldest Gay Bar Closes

From Xta.ca:
"After 37 years, Montreal's oldest gay bar will be closing its doors for the final time. Though the bar, and its upstairs neighbour, the Stanley Pub, have been up for sale for over a year, Mystique manager Steven Wells confirms a deal is close to being finalized and that the new owners have "no plans to keep Le Mystique open."

And for many who know Le Mystique's place in Montreal's queer history, this is indeed sad news. "Obviously, we are greatly saddened by this," says Wells, "and not just for staff. Many of our regulars are disheartened to know the place won't be around."

Le Mystique is the last gay outpost west of Montreal's east-end gay Village, situated on Stanley Street in a discreet spot halfway between McGill campus and Concordia's downtown campus. Though there were recent efforts to get more students in to drum up more business, Wells concedes these are tough times for gay drinking holes. "A lot of younger people meet online now. Since Mystique's heyday in the '70s, we've had the AIDS crisis, which took a lot of patrons, we've had the Village move east, and we've had the smoking ban. These things haven't helped us. In May, Loto-Quebec also took out our three lotto machines, and that's hurt us too."

Despite its rather drab décor — it seems like a very run-of-the-mill basement pub — Quebec's gay historians say Mystique is hallowed ground, a crucial spot in the city's queer evolution. Ross Higgins, co-founder of the Quebec Gay Archives, points to Mystique's spot in a key moment of social change for Montreal's queer citizens. In the wee hours of Oct 21, 1977, police raided several of the gay bars on Stanley, including Truxx and Le Mystique. The police used ludicrously heavy-handed tactics, arriving with guns drawn, arresting 146 gay men on spurious charges. It is now thought that, beyond homophobia (which obviously played a part), it was part of the municipal government's plan to continue to harass the city's gay milieu and the businesses that served them, effectively pushing them away from the downtown core and further east. Since most of the arrests happened at Truxx, the night has since become known as the Truxx Raids.
The police action prompted a potent counter-reaction, however. It inadvertently helped to galvanize the gay community. Gay men who previously had felt no political connection to being gay began speaking out and protesting. By the very next night, over 2,000 gay men and allies blocked the corner of Ste-Catherine and Stanley, effectively paralyzing the downtown core. This drew huge amounts of media attention and put the issues of human rights front and centre. Many said they felt that a majority of straight people supported their cause, and that enough was enough in terms of police harassment.

By the following December, the effects could be felt. Quebec's national assembly, then in the hands of the PQ, approved Bill 88, which added sexual orientation to Quebec's charter of human rights as an illegal basis for discrimination. This made Quebec the first place in North America to have such protection (and it would be quite some time before another province would follow suit). It also led to one of Montreal's first Pride Parades, in 1979.

Since its glory days, Le Mystique has gotten occasional notices in the press, not all of them welcome. Some patrons expressed their dissatisfaction after reading a 1996 Montreal Mirror cover story on Montreal's "strangest bars." Le Mystique was listed, and was likened to the scene captured in William Friedkin's landmark 1970 film The Boys in the Band, which depicted a group of pre-Stonewall gay men who were unhappy, self-hating and often addicted. Not such a flattering analogy, the regulars said at the time.

Wells says it's too bad this historic spot could no longer make a go of it. "Right now we're just waiting to find out precisely what the timeline is for closing the doors. We just hope they give us enough notice that we can have a big closing party. Our patrons deserve that. And so does the spirit of Le Mystique. There's something really incredible about having a drink with friends in a bar that's a piece of history."

NPR: Gay Bars Facing a New Reality

From NPR Marketplace April 25, 2008:
"2TEXT OF STORY
KAI RYSSDAL: At this point in the recession, or slowdown, or whatever you want to call it, you're probably familiar with the term "business cycle." Business and businesses have life cycles just like everything else. Demand creates new opportunities, and then when that demand dries up businesses die.

Every year, Fortune Magazine releases a list of 10 businesses it thinks are facing extinction. Some of this year's casualties? Record stores, crop dusting and telemarketing. Oh, and gay bars, too. That one caught our eye because gay business in general is booming.

Stacey Vanek Smith has more.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STACEY VANEK-SMITH: It's a busy weekend night at a gay bar in Los Angeles. . .

Actor Jason Dottley says gay bars don't just cater to a gay clientele anymore. The scene has become a lot more mixed.

Jason Dottley: It's an indication of open-mindedness. I think it's a sign of progress.

But that progress has a left some older gay bars sounding like this . . . [sound of ocean waves crashing].

The Boom Boom Room opened in Laguna Beach in 1947. It used to be a favorite hangout of Rock Hudson's. But today the windows of the white, art-deco facade are papered over.

Fred Karger started coming here in 1973.

Fred Karger: It's a magical place. It had a little, kind of loungey bar, and it had pool tables. They'd have this wonderful cabaret show on Wednesday nights.

The new owner plans to tear down the Boom Boom Room and build a luxury hotel.

Gay bars all over the country have met similar fates: New York's Roxy, The Avalon in Boston, The Pendulum in San Francisco. But here's the weird thing: Gay business is booming. Gay spending power in the U.S. is worth an estimated $750 billion.

So why are gay bars having so much trouble? Marketing expert Jerry McHugh says part of it is generational.

Jerry McHugh: Generation X people and Generation Y people are less concerned about gay-exclusive socialization, and they're more interested in a more-diverse environment.

McHugh says for gay boomers, bars used to function like community centers.

McHugh: When I came out it was the early 90s, and it was really helpful to go to these places.

Boston Globe writer Robert David Sullivan says a few years ago he noticed the number of gay bars in Boston had been cut in half. He says it was strange because they had been such a cornerstone of the gay social scene.

Robert David Sullivan: It was sort of structured that you could meet people that way, and you could say things and not censor yourself.

Sullivan says today young, gay men and women use the Internet, not bars, to meet people. And the older generation has graduated from late-night bar hopping to a mellow meal out.

Of course, a lot of gay bars aren't disappearing, they're just becoming more mixed. Take The Abbey in West Hollywood. It's an institution on L.A.'s gay scene. But on a weekday afternoon, there are as many straight neighborhood families as there are single gay men. Owner David Cooley says the gay-bar business model worked 10 years ago, but not anymore.

David Cooley: If you would say to me, "David, let's open up a gay bar." I wouldn't be investing.

Cooley is investing in gay-friendly bars. He's opening an Abbey in Chicago and plans to expand to other cities. He says all of the spots will be mixed -- that's where the future is.

Cooley: Once in a while, I'll get a customer say: "The Abbey's becoming so straight." And my response is: "Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that what we've been working for all these years?"

Bar owners George Butler and Randall Lambright disagree. They own the Savoy Orlando and Paradise Orlando in Florida. Butler says a mixed scene might work in places like New York and San Francisco, but in most of the country, the need for gay bars still exists.

GEORGE BUTLER: I don't think we're quite at the point where the gay clientele is comfortable sitting in a chain restaurant or bar where they can still hold hands or kiss.

Co-owner Randall Lambright says many of the older gay bars have closed because they just don't meet the high standards of gay customers anymore.

Randall Lambright: I can remember when gay bars were basically back-alley -- dark and not very inviting. And I think the clubs that are around are definitely more upscale.

Lambright says if the quality's there, the market for gay bars is still strong. He says the demand for exclusively gay spots hasn't gone away, it's just evolved.

In Los Angeles, I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith for Marketplace"
008: "

Gay Bars Facing Losses, Attract Straight Customers

From Alaska on adn.com:
"By JULIA O'MALLEY
jomalley@adn.com

(03/21/09 00:02:01)
In Mad Myrna's drag dressing room, where a J-Lo song wound out among the wigs and gowns on a recent Friday evening, Isanoel Pinson leaned into the mirror, pursed his lips a little and smeared foundation on his forehead.

Pinson, who is in his 40s, started performing drag just after he emigrated to Anchorage from the Philippines in the early '80s. His first haunt was an old bar called the Jade Room. These days the crowds that come to his shows couldn't be more different than they were back then.

"Oh. My. God," he said, applying a ribbon of glue to a false eyelash. "Before is all like gay, gay, gay. Now would you believe? Our audience is all straight people. Couples!"

Myrna's has been home to a drag show for a decade, and straight people have long been part of the audience. But on some Friday nights lately, gay patrons have thinned dramatically, replaced by military couples, bachelorette parties and curious young professionals. It's part of a national trend.

From San Francisco to Pittsburgh, Boston to Nashville, gay bars are closing their doors and shuttering drag shows, citing lack of patrons.

There are plenty of theories why clientele is changing at Myrna's. People are making connections on the Internet. Growing social acceptance means there are few establishments were gays don't feel comfortable. Simply put, the need for gay bars is fading.

"I have this feeling now that it's like 'mission accomplished,' " said Mike Richardson, board president of the Imperial Court of All Alaska, one of the state's oldest gay organizations.

"We really don't need safety in numbers."

Myrna's had to get creative to attract new customers to fill in where the old ones used to be, said manager Jeff "Myrna" Wood. Over the last few years, that has meant retooling the drag show to appeal to a wider audience. And now the venerable gay bar depends at least in part on the dollars of straight customers to keep its doors open.

As Wood likes to say, gay or straight, "everybody's money is green."


QUEEN OF QUEENS

The clock ticks toward 9 p.m., Paige Langit arrives in the dressing room with her mother, Donna Langit, carrying bags of costumes.

Langit is 28. Lounge singer and comedienne, she's the sexy, bossy, busty co-host of the show. She's also a registered Republican with a boyfriend. She stands in front of the mirror in a pink bra, teasing her hair and caking on purple eye shadow. A queen named Mariquita squeezes in next to her, pawing through a make-up bag.

Langit is the face of the new scene. The drag show, once the exclusive domain of gay men and transgender women, has morphed into a variety show -- kinky and freaky -- with something for everyone, from burlesque to torch singing, along with a diverse stable of queens.

A singer and actress since her teens, Langit started performing at Myrna's in her early 20s after one of the drag queens saw her sing karaoke. She had a couple of gay friends in high school but had no experience with drag.

"I didn't know anything about the transgender community," she said, but enjoyed the personalities she encountered at the bar. "It was like, 'Oh great -- a group of people who like to perform.' "

Drag is mainly about exaggerated femininity, Langit says. Once she has her hair and make-up and magenta high-heels on, she feels a bit like a drag queen too.

People in the audience wonder if she's a lesbian or if she's a "real" woman. All that ambiguity is part of what makes the show interesting, she says.


SOLDIERS IN THE AUDIENCE

Lights dimmed, cocktails flowing and tables full, music pounds out of the speakers in Myrna's show hall. Scott "Daphne DoAll LaChores" Koeller, the other drag show co-host, is dressed in a red Sarah Palin-esque suit, enormous ratty blonde wig and matronly glasses. He takes the stage, warming the audience with a monologue full of double-entendre one-liners.

Then Langit makes her entrance, sashaying into the spotlight in a tight pink top and white leggings, bubble gun in hand. An old cross-dresser and a young lady-- a drag version of Regis and Kelly -- their witty, bawdy banter serves as the backbone for the show, bridging generations and sexuality.

Koeller makes a joke referencing a decades old commercial. Langit tilts her head to the side, her face blank.

"I'll YouTube it," she says.

Soon an old-time burlesque dancer in a bustier and ruffled panties weaves through the audience starting her act. Then comes the lithe, shirtless male go-go dancer. Then the Karaoke crooner in a brown v-neck sweater. The room is full of whistles and belly laughs. There's a soldier in dress uniform and his wife in the front row.

Today's audience is usually couples or single women, Wood said.

"The girls want to go see the drag queens," he said. "Women are more tolerant than guys are."

"You can always tell the straight people," says Koeller, "because they're the ones who come on time."

Iesha Jones, 32, who is not gay, has become a regular at Myrna's. She started coming years ago because she had a friend in the show. She likes that the bar doesn't have a "meat market" feel, she said.

"It's like OK, I'm here for the show," she said. "I know I'm not going to get hit on by guys."

The straight men are almost always with women. In general men who come alone are "highly questionable" as a dating prospect, she said. Though it's not entirely impossible to meet someone.

"Occasionally you get a lot of soldiers. I did meet a guy who just got back from Iraq."

Members of the older generation might raise an eyebrow that she's spending time at a gay bar, she said. But people her age don't think it's strange and most of her friends would be comfortable joining her. There are a number of bars in Anchorage with an integrated gay-straight social scene, she said.


THE NEW SHOW

Backstage not everyone is happy. But then they wouldn't be drag queens without a little drama. Pinson, affixing a 3-foot-wide Afro wig, clicks his tongue, looking at the clock. The new acts take forever. He complains in Tagalog to Joebie Fernandez, a diminutive, smooth-skinned queen, who's sorting through a tackle box of earrings. There are eye rolls all around.

The class of drag queens once at the center of the show are aging -- most are at least 40 -- and like a fading order of nuns whose convents are closing, fewer among the younger generation are stepping into their size 13 pumps.

Some worry drag has become so mainstream, it may have lost its edge, so the younger generation isn't as interested. And, with fewer bars, there's fewer places for new queens to learn the craft.

That's what makes Trevor "Ashley" Council unique. At 24, he's the youngest of the queens by at least 10 years. On his hands and knees, he's pulling shoes out of a suitcase, naming each style as he examines them: "French Whore. French Whore. Hooker Shoe."

"I'm a boy during the day and girl on Friday nights and for special events," he says.

He stands in front of the mirror in a black dress, fluffs his wig and flashes a set of perfect white teeth. He's doesn't know what gay bars used to be like but likes the way they are now.

"I think the people who go there are the kind who are straight and more accepting of gay people," he said. "It's nice to be around those kind of people."

Out on the main floor, bass from the speakers vibrates the drinks on the bar. Pinson waits off stage for her Gloria Gaynor number. Fernandez, in a leather bikini and dangling earrings, steps out to face the audience, opening a huge set of gold lamé wings into a whirl of lights.

And at least for now, the show goes on."

10 Year Old Arkansas Boy Refuses to Stand for Pledge Over Gay Rights

Huffington Post reports on November 16, 2009: "Via Queerty comes a story from the Arkansas Times about Will Phillips, an elementary school student who refuses to say the pledge of allegiance in school because of discrimination against gay people:

"I've always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer," Will said. "I really don't feel that there's currently liberty and justice for all."

After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down. The class had a substitute teacher that week, a retired educator from the district, who knew Will's mother and grandmother. Though the substitute tried to make him stand up, he respectfully refused. He did it again the next day, and the next day.


A columnist for the Arkansas News has stood up for Phillips against his angry substitute teacher. Predictably, fellow students have taunted the kid and called him a "gaywad," but he says he doesn't see his quiet act of protest ending any time soon."

Major Gay Magazine Publisher Shuts Down

From Towleroad.com on November 16, 2009: "Window Media, the former publisher of Genre magazine, which also publishes the Washington Blade, Southern Voice, Houston Voice, South Florida Blade, David Atlanta and The 411 Magazine, reportedly closed up shop over the weekend.

Its parent fund, Avalon Equity, run by David Unger, had been forced into receivership by the federal Small Business Administration in February.

A notice was posted on the company's door over the weekend: "It is with GREAT regret that we must inform you that effective immediately, the operations of Window Media, LLC and Unite Media, LLC have closed down. Please return to this office on WEDNESDAY, November 18th, 2009 at 11:00 AM to collect personal belongings and to receive information on your separation stipulations. Please bring boxes and/or containers that will allow you to collect all your personal belongings at one time."

A message from the editor (to whom the closing came as a complete shock) of the Southern Voice was left on the publication's Facebook page: "With deepest regret, as editor of SoVo, I have to tell you that we arrived at the office to learn that our parent company, Window Media, has shut down. While the 20 years of SoVo have come to an end, our civil rights movement is only beginning. I am personally grateful to all of the staff, and to all of you who have had the courage to share your stories. It has been the honor of my life to help you tell them."

Some of the company's websites are offline. The Washington Blade is still online. This is sad news. The publications will be missed."