SAVE Dade's Hellrotika fundraiser Saturday night at The Awarehouse in Wynwood

News release from SAVE Dade:

 

16th ANNUAL SAVE DADE HALLOWEEN FUNDRAISER PLANNED TO ATTRACT OVER 1,000 PEOPLE TO BENEFIT EQUAL RIGHTS

Hellrotika: Circus of Lost Souls Will Feature World-Class DJ’s, Special Performances, Costume Contest and Ample Time to “Party” for a Worthwhile Cause
 
October 2010 (Miami, FL) – Tickets are now on sale for SAVE Dade’s 16th annual Halloween Fundraiser Extravaganza, Hellrotika: Circus of Lost Souls. SAVE Dade hopes to attract over 1,000 attendees from Miami-Dade and Broward and is considered by many as one of the most popular annual equality celebrations in Miami.
 
 Recreated and freshly energized by a new steering committee, this year’s event is envisioned as a perfect combination of dance party, mingling forum and themed spectacle, with an aim to attract a diverse group of individuals from within the community.
 
Event guests will be treated to an immersive, multi-media experience with macabre interactive “circus” performances, a costume contest, food vendors and the latest dance music played by five world class DJs, headlined by celebrity mixer, LAZARO LEON. VIP ticket holders will also enjoy an exclusive area with open bar sponsored by Grey Goose Vodka, gourmet hors d'oeuvres and valet parking all included in the VIP ticket price.
 
As SAVE Dade’s largest fundraising event of the year, all money raised at Hellrotika will fuel SAVE’s efforts in fighting for LGBT equality. Since 1993, SAVE has continued to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals from discrimination, thanks to the great collaboration of members, volunteers, donors and sponsors at such fundraising events like Hellrotika, keeping SAVE Dade’s momentum going strong.
 
 
“We hope that this year’s fundraiser will help us reach new audiences and take the SAVE Dade mission to greater heights. Not only have we sponsored a great Halloween party for the last 15 years, but we’ve successfully created an environment of inclusion and acceptance that goes beyond the limits of sexual orientation,” said CJ Ortuño, SAVE Dade’s Executive Director.
 
The event will be held on Saturday, October 30th at The Awarehouse in Miami’s trendy Wynwood Arts District. Tickets are available now at hellrotika.com or by phone at  305 751-7283. Prices are $35 General Admission and $90 VIP (includes open bar, food and valet parking) thru 10/30, and at the door tickets are $45 General Admission and $100 VIP (includes open bar, food and valet parking). For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.hellrotika.com.
 
SAVE Dade, Inc.
SAVE Dade’s mission is to promote, protect and defend equality for people in Miami-Dade County who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. For more information, visit www.SAVEDade.org.
 
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Safe Schools South Florida launches Speakout, a gay speakers bureau

From Safe Schools South Florida:

 

Safe Schools South Florida has a cadre of Adult Speakers willing to speak to GLBTQ youth, their allies, families and the greater community about their lives -- the challenges as well as successes -- and the values and ethics that have helped make them successful GLBT persons or allies in our community.
 
In telling the stories of their lives, particularly to GLBTQ youth, they are offering something incredibly, incalculably invaluable. What they are offering is best described in Armistead Maupin's best-seller Tales of the City, in which the young character, Michael Tolliver, who moved from Orlando to San Francisco in the early 1970's, writes a letter to his mother, letting her and his father know that he is gay. As Michael explains in his letter,
 
"No, mama, I wasn't 'recruited.' No seasoned homosexual ever served as my mentor. But you know what? I wish someone had. I wish someone older than me and wiser than the people in Orlando had taken me aside and said, "You're all right, kid. You can grow up to be a doctor or a teacher just like anyone else. You're not crazy or sick or evil. You can succeed and be happy and find peace with friends -- all kinds of friends -- who don't give a damn who you go to bed with. Most of all, though, you can love and be loved, without hating yourself for it...But no one ever said that to me, Mama. I had to find it out on my own..."
 
For more information about SpeakOUT or to request a Speaking Engagement
Contact:
Enbar Cohen
(786) 286-6616
Enbar@SafeSchoolsSouthFlorida.org

Gallery | SAVE Dade Equality Express arrives for early voting at Miami Beach City Hall

SAVE Dade brought its Equality Express truck to Miami Beach City Hall for early voting on Sunday.

SAVE Dade's campaign, called Vote. Fight. Win, is designed to create increased voter turnout through online and offline grassroots “get out the vote” efforts. The final goal is to get 5,000 people to sign a pledge to vote for SAVE Dade’s endorsed pro-equality candidates,  Executive Director CJ Ortuño says.

Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff. Click the photo to view a gallery of pictures.

Gallery | 'Gay-friendly' The Bay opens on JFK Causeway in North Bay Village

The Bay restaurant and nightclub, a new “gay-friendly” nightclub and restaurant opened this weekend at 1601 J.F.K. Causeway in North Bay Village.

Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff. Click the picture above to view a gallery from the pre-opening party. 

Gay rapper Cazwell visits Wire Magazine's Traveling Brunch at Baires on Lincoln Road

Rapper Cazwell, in Miami Beach for a performance Sunday night at Lux nightclub, stopped by with friends and producer Edison Farrow during Wire Magazine's Traveling Brunch Sunday at Baires on Lincoln Road.

Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff. Click the photo above to view a few photos from the brunch.

Video | SAVE Dade: 'Don't Vote'

On SAVE Dade's YouTube channel:

On YouTube: Judy Garland sings 'I Feel a Song Coming On' live at The Palace (1967)

On YouTube:

Opening Night At The Palace, July 31, 1967

Audio content courtesy of Yahoo's The Judy Garland Experience: http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/thejudygarlandexperience/

Alan Mason of Barry University and Temple Israel to perform Jewish music for Pope Benedict XVI

From The Herald's Oct. 17 South Florida Arts Scene:

Alan Mason, associate professor of music at Barry University and longtime director of music at Miami's Temple Israel, is scheduled to accompany a program of Jewish music to be performed in Rome on Nov. 16.

Mason is one of two accompanists for the concert featuring 20 North American cantors at the 16th century Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri at the Baths at Diocletian. In the audience: Pope Benedict XVI and other church leaders. The concert will be held during a conference on Catholic-Jewish relations and will be filmed for Across the Holy Lands, a documentary.

Mason has been teaching piano and music history at Barry since 1996. He performed for President Bush at the White House in 2007.

Union Leader of Manchester, New Hampshire's largest newspaper, won't print gay marriage notices

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.H. -- New Hampshire's largest newspaper is defending its decision to refuse to publish marriage notices for gay couples.

New Hampshire is one of five states to have legalized gay marriage. Two men getting married in Portsmouth on Saturday wanted to publish a marriage notice in the Union Leader of Manchester but were refused.

The newspaper says it has a constitutional right to choose what to print and opposes the new law. Publisher Joe McQuaid says the paper isn't anti-gay but believes marriage is between a man and a woman.

Democratic Senate candidate Paul Hodes called on the paper to change its policy and respect the state law. He challenged Republican opponent Kelly Ayotte to denounce its decision.

An Ayotte spokesman says government officials have no business telling a free press what to do.

Gay voters angry at Democrats could sway election

By TAMMY WEBBER, Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Kate Coatar is seriously considering voting for Green Party candidates instead of Democrats, whom she normally supports. James Wyatt won't cast a ballot at all because he no longer trusts anyone to fight for causes important to him.

If Democratic candidates are counting on long-standing support from gay voters to help stave off big losses on Nov. 2, they could be in for a surprise.

Across the country, activists say gay voters are angry - at the lack of progress on issues from eliminating employment discrimination to uncertainty over serving in the military to the economy - and some are choosing to sit out this election or look for other candidates.

President Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago, with its large, politically and socially active gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, offers a snapshot of what some are calling the "enthusiasm gap" between voters who came out strong for Obama and other Democrats in 2008 and re-energized Republican base voters, including tea party enthusiasts who say they are primed to storm the polls.

It didn't help that the controversy over the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays erupted less than two weeks before the election, when a judge overturned it, then Obama's justice department decided to fight the judge's decision. On Thursday, the Defense Department declared that "don't ask, don't tell" is official policy but set up a new system that could make it tougher to get thrown out of the military for being openly gay.

"It's all talk and nothing's happening, and I'm just over it," said Coatar, 62, a church business manager who said she's as concerned about health care and homelessness as about gay issues. "I don't know who to vote for and the election is a week away."

Wyatt, 35, a maintenance worker at the Center on Halsted, a community center serving Chicago's GLBT community, said politicians only court gay voters at election time.

"Once they're elected, they're not fighting for things like civil unions or same-sex marriage or ending 'don't ask, don't tell' because they're hot-button issues," said Wyatt, who usually supports Democrats. "We're just used as a piggyback for them to get into office. It's absurd."

Whether or not that's the case, Wyatt isn't the only one who feels that way.

And in places like Cook County, Ill., where the gay population represents about 7 percent of voters, that could mean the difference between victory and defeat in some races, said Rick Garcia, director of public policy for Equality Illinois. One of those races is a much-watched and close battle for Obama's old Senate seat between Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk.

"If (candidates) can mobilize the gay community and get them out to vote, it could make all the difference in the world in some of these key races," said Garcia.

But volunteers who've been calling the 18,000 or so members of Equality Illinois to urge them to vote have been getting an earful. Many members say they won't vote or will vote against incumbents, regardless of their party affiliation or stance on gay issues.

This year's election is a stark contrast to 2008, when the gay community turned out in droves to elect Obama and help Democrats regain control of Congress.

"People were clamoring and very excited about the change that then-candidate Obama promised America," Garcia said. "Now I see lethargy at best and disgust at worst."

He said gains won under Obama, including in fighting housing discrimination, have not filtered out to many in the gay community because "the big issues have not appeared to change at all."

"But change takes time; sometimes it takes a lot of time. A lot of folks just don't understand that," said Garcia. "I am older and more seasoned, but most people are very disturbed with the administration ... and they're the hard ones to get out to vote.

"The message is huge: Don't take us for granted."

Tracy Baim, publisher of Windy City Times, Chicago's oldest and largest GLBT newspaper, and author of the new book "Obama and the Gays," said disappointment is showing up in another way: Some are refusing to donate money to candidates until they see progress, although it's difficult to gauge how much that has affected fundraising.

A message left Friday with the Democratic National Committee seeking comment was not immediately returned.

But many gay organizations are working hard to get voters to the polls, fearing they could face setbacks if Republicans retake control of Congress. Baim said Democrats and Obama still enjoy widespread support in some parts of the gay community, particularly among African-Americans and Latinos, and she believes the majority still will vote.

"People are disappointed but understand that this really is the best hope for significant change over the next several years," she said. "But at the same time, the anger is very real."

Robin McGehee, co-founder and director of the national gay-rights organization GetEQUAL calls the mood among gay voters a "disappointment canyon" but said they have no choice but to go to the polls.

She, however, is refusing to donate to or volunteer for any candidate this year. And members of her group are protesting wherever Obama appears on the campaign trail.

"We can't not take advantage of the right to vote, but that doesn't mean we can't vote smartly," said McGehee, of Fresno, Calif. "If I was a leader in the Democratic Party, I would be worried.

"Either we're important enough to fight for our equality or we're worth losing," she said. "Right now we're being treated like we're worth losing."