Female impersonator-turned-minister flips over WIG, a new spiritual group to meet Wednesdays

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Female impersonator Jamie Grace has gone from divine to divinity.

Grace and friends have launched WIG, a nonprofit gay spirituality ministry that has its first public meeting 8 p.m. Wednesday at The Manor in Wilton Manors.

"They can expect a huge, exciting, theatrical, spiritual, empowering gay revival," Grace said. "We don't make people gay. We just inspire them to love being gay. Love their gay neighbors and respect their gay neighbors."

Grace grew up Jewish in North Miami Beach and worked for years in gay resorts such as Provincetown, Mass., as Trinity, the Next Lady of Jazz.

Fifteen years ago, Grace graduated from the Unitarian Universalist seminary with a masters in divinity.

"They’re very philosophical and forward thinking," Grace says of the Unitarian Universalist congregation.

Grace moved to Wilton Manors about 3 1/2 years ago. At brunch last year, he and friend conceived WIG -- Wild Inspirational Gatherings.

"A bunch of us had brunch one day and we got sick of gay kids committing suicide. We decided to do something about it," he said.

Grace, 49, took money he had saved for a planned 50th birthday party in October and used it to start WIG.

"Forget the cake. I’ll just have the candle," he said.

Grace, a fulltime massage therapist, used the money to join Pridelines Youth Services in Miami Shores, the Pride Center in Fort Lauderdale and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.

"The main goal of WIG is to get young adults and regular adults to come together for spiritual purposes,' Grace said. "At WIG, gay means inner fabulous."

Martha Sternberg, a founding member of WIG said its purpose is prove that an LGBT person can live "a happy life."

"WIG will show people that it’s a lifelong celebration and there’s no reason to be depressed over it," Sternberg said.

Grace says "transgender people, massage therapists and nice Jewish guys can all make a big difference."

WIG will meet every Wednesday night at The Manor and each week a female impersonator will attend. This week, "Joan Rivers, followed by Cher and Whitney. ... Rev. Trinity will come on the sixth week."

Grace hopes everything goes well:

"It’s opening night and anything that can go wrong will," he said. "So please be kind."

UPDATE (July 8, 2012):

WIG has moved to Thursdays at Boom Nightclub, 2234 Wilton Dr. in Wilton Manors, from 8 to 9:30 p.m. $10 donation at door.

Tom Cruise addresses gay rumors in Playboy

From Miami Herald People page editor Madeleine Marr:

Forget the centerfold. Tom Cruise is the star of Playboy’s June issue, on stands Friday. The actor, who turns 50 in July, got candid in the article, even discussing persistent rumors that he is gay. “I hear it, I read it, I get it,” he says, “But life is not a matter of trying to prove anything to anybody.’’

The Rock of Ages star is proud of his work ethic and believe that’s the key to his success and allowed him to overcome the negativity. “Does refuting things help? Not really. There comes a point when you just have to go, ‘You know what? Here’s how I’ve lived my life: I’ve never been late to a set. I make films I believe in. I feel privileged to be able to do what I love.’ You just have to keep going and remember that.’’

Video | Oklahoma congressman: Gay is a choice and should not be protected from workplace discrimination

U.S. Rep. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, responds to a post from the blog ThinkProgress, which reported "that he believes someone should be able to be fired for his or her sexual orientation."

Quietly, the Republican Party is embracing gays

BY CURTIS TATE, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- A quiet transformation is taking place in the Republican Party, which has begun to embrace openly gay candidates – and among gay Republicans, who now feel more comfortable speaking out in a party that may have accepted them but didn’t always show it.

While differences still exist, the party is on the cusp of a generational shift in which the longtime foes of gay rights are replaced by younger party leaders who are more accepting.

“It’s an exponential change from a few years ago,” said former Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe. “It’s happening, and it’s going to continue to happen.”

Kolbe, who represented the southeast corner of Arizona from 1985 to 2007, was one of only two openly gay Republicans ever to serve in Congress.

There are issues on which many gay Republicans differ with their party, not the least of which is same-sex marriage. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and other party leaders oppose it, and that stance is embedded in the party’s platform. While they may have welcomed President Barack Obama’s support of same-sex marriage last week, on other issues – such as taxes, regulation and the size of government – gay Republicans are as steadfast as any other party member.

There are only four openly gay members of Congress now, all Democrats. But that could change this year.

“You’ll elect at least one gay Republican for Congress this year,” Kolbe said.

Click here to read the complete article.

Barack Obama shift on gay marriage energizes young Hispanic immigration activists

BY JERI CLAUSING, ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- President Barack Obama's shift to support gay marriage is energizing young Hispanic voters who have been working side-by-side with gay activists in their push for immigration reform. The alliance has been growing nationwide and helping dispel what many say is an outdated notion that Hispanics are less tolerant of gays than the general public.

"My members are telling me that we need to learn from the gay community," said Dee Dee Garcia Blase, founder of the Phoenix-based Somos Republicans. She is now head of the Tequila Party, which she formed last year with the goal of registering young Hispanics to vote for immigration-friendly candidates like Obama.

"We need to take a lesson from the (lesbian and gay) community with regard to being that loud, squeaky wheel that gets fixed," Blase said. "We need to be more aggressive, and we realize it."

Click here to read more.

‘Six Dance Lessons’ tracks unlikely friendship; runs through Sunday at Miami Beach Stage Door

BY CHRISTINE DOLEN, CDOLEN@MIAMIHERALD.COM

At their first meeting, minister’s widow Lily Harrison and ex-chorus boy Michael Minetti are like oil and water.

She’s a proper Southern woman so cautious about those who prey on the elderly that she pretends her husband is still alive. He’s a flamboyant guy with no filter between his brain and his sometimes-temperamental potty mouth. Theirs is a business relationship — she has hired him to give her dance lessons — that slowly evolves into a friendship that has nothing to do with dancing, everything to do with loneliness and the need for connection.

Richard Alfieri’s Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeksis the simplest of plays, a poignant if somewhat flawed two-character comedy that tracks the evolution of that unlikely friendship over seven scenes. It was produced at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in 2003, with ex- Golden Girls star Rue McClanahan as Lily and former Star Wars hero Mark Hamill as Michael. But as the new Dan Kelley-directed production at the Miami Beach Stage Door Theatre demonstrates, Six Dance Lessons doesn’t need stars to connect with an audience.

Click here to read the complete review.

IF YOU GO

What: ‘Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks’ by Richard Alfieri

Where: Miami Beach Stage Door Theatre at the Byron Carlisle, 500 71st St., Miami Beach

When: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through May 20

Cost: $38

INFO: 305-397-8977, www.miamibeachstage.com

Ellen DeGeneres wins Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, top humor prize in United States

BY BRETT ZONGKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Ellen DeGeneres is winning the nation's top humor prize 15 years after breaking ground as the first lead character on primetime TV to reveal she's gay.

The Kennedy Center in Washington is announcing Tuesday that DeGeneres will receive the 15th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. She'll be honored Oct. 22 with a lineup of star performers.

In a statement, DeGeneres says receiving the same award as Bill Cosby, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell makes her wonder, "why didn't I get this sooner?"

It was in 1997 when DeGeneres came out on Time magazine's cover and on TV's "Ellen" to a record 46 million viewers. The sitcom was canceled a year later.

DeGeneres bounced back with movie roles, a hit talk show and as a judge on "American Idol."

Four men to be hanged in Iran for sodomy, according to Human Rights Activist News Agency

Four men are to be hanged after being convicted of sodomy in Iran this week, reports Pink News in London:

Four men named ‘Saadat Arefi’, ‘Vahid Akbari’, ‘Javid Akbari’ and ‘Houshmand Akbari’ are due to be executed shortly after their verdict was approved recently by high court judges, according to a report from the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) in Iran.

Click here to read the complete article.

Video | President Barack Obama on gay marriage from 'The View'

President Barack Obama will speak about gay marriage on Tuesday's episode of The View on ABC. Here is a clip in which he speaks with Barbara Walters about the Defense of Marriage Act and civil unions vs. marriage.