RU12? Community Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Vermont

RU12? Community Center Team for Fire Truck Pull....

Hello all!  The RU12? Community Center is forming a team so that we can compete in the 7th Annual Burlington Fire Truck Pull to benefit Outright Vermont!!!  

We want YOU......are you interested in joining our really fun, kooky and wild team???  We have to admit we are pretty committed to winning SOMETHING this year....maybe best costume, maybe FASTEST pull?  Who knows.....what we do know is this - if you are interested in being on the RU12? Community Center team we are interested in hearing from you!  

The PULL is happening on Saturday, September 18th on Church Street in Burlington - we would arrive at 11:00 to get ready, pulls will start at noon.....

Call Ann at the Center - 860-7812 if you are interested in joining us...

GLAMflix

Join GLAM tonight at the RU12? Community Center for some scary films in celebration of it being

Meet at the new space in Winooski at the Champlain Mill, starting at 7:30p tonight.

To enjoy some snacks and scares!!

Equality always wins!

Stay lifted -- California marriage equality will resume Wednesday!

California's cities and towns can begin issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples on Wednesday, August 18 -- assuming no stay is granted by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court.  Today's decision by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, the judge who concluded that California's Proposition 8, banning same-sex couples from marrying, violates the U.S. Constitution, was greeted with celebration and tears of joy.

As Vermont Freedom to Marry cofounder Beth Robinson wrote, "On one side, we have real families living lives of integrity who are just seeking the same legal security that their neighbors enjoy. On the other, we have anxieties unsupported by actual evidence or reason. The U.S. Constitution doesn't allow unfounded fears to defeat citizens' basic rights."

So what now?  The process continues.  Equality opponents may immediately seek to appeal Judge Walker's decision NOT to stay his ruling on Prop 8 pending appeal.  That issue may or may not go up the chain in the court system. 

Regardless of whether the Court's decision takes effect right now, opponents are appealing the underlying court decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The losing side at that level can ask the United States Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit's ruling, and the Supreme Court can decide whether or not to do that.  And California voters may well repeal Prop 8 at the ballot box in 2012, which would be fantastic news and would render the Perry case (in which Judge Walker overturned Prop 8) moot.

In the meantime, two important cases challenging the constitutionality of the federal government's refusal to provide federal protections to legally married same-sex couples are working their way through the federal courts here on our own coast.  The judge in those cases ruled that this aspect of the federal "Defense of Marriage Act" is unconstitutional.  If asked to do so, the judge in those cases is likely to "stay" the effect of the court's rulings pending any appeal.  Like the California case, these cases are at a critical juncture. 

Meanwhile, the American Bar Association (ABA) has announced its support for equal marriage rights.  Other states are on the way to adopting marriage equality laws.

Stay tuned:  It's a long road and we are well on our way.

HIV Testing Update

RU12? is able to provide HIV Testing on Tuesday's and Thursday's from 11a-5p.

However for the next couple of weeks we will not be able to run the rapid test. You are still able to come in and get an anonymous test at the center but it will be using the OraSure test. We will keep up posted as soon as the rapid testing is available, but we can still give you a test if you come in.

SafeSpace Update....

Hello everyone....Here is a look at what SafeSpace has been up to...

Brenda, the SafeSpace Direct Services Advocate, and Ella Kaplan, co-facilitator, and Outright Vermont's Program Manager continue to facilitate the "survivors of violence" support group each week.  This group has been meeting weekly for two years.  If you or someone you know might benefit from group support please give us a call in the SafeSpace office to talk more about it.  

Damien, another one of our volunteer facilitators continues to host the support group for male survivors of violence as well, this group meets weekly.  If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about Damien's group please give us a call at the SafeSpace office.  863.0003

SafeSpace is planning its second annual conference...we met on Tuesday with a fabulous group of dedicated individuals from various agencies interested in promoting a conference around the health care needs of the LGBTQ community.  Our planning stage has just begun, however watch for updates and the big reveal of the details coming soon!  

We LOVE our new space.  If you have not come to the Center, now located in the Champlain Mill in Winooski, we hope you will consider visiting us.  The SafeSpace office (the only Center really) is an absolutely beautiful space that serves the needs of the LGBTQ community really well!  It serves our needs as well, as it offers a beautiful view of the Winooski River and is so quiet, yet open, airy and comfortable!

If you or someone you know is in need of SafeSpace services, advocates are available Monday through Friday from 9AM until 6PM.  All services are free and confidential.  We recognize the difficulty in reaching out for services and are here to help in any way we can.  Our number is 863.0003 or you can call the RU12? Community Center at 860.7812.  

LA Based Photographer Seeking Vermont Subjects

Greetings.  I am a photographer who grew up in Shelburne, VT and now lives in LA. 

 

I’m seeking subjects for a sequel photography book who are gay (men or women), live in Vermont and have either a truly unique living space (quirky, odd, unusual), or live in a pastoral Vermont setting, even a farmer would be ideal.

I’ll be back in VT around August 21^st and was hoping to locate a subject or two.  

 

The series features portraits of gay men and women at home including John Waters, Todd Oldham, Edward Albee, Joel Schumacher, George Takei, Tommy Tune, Christopher Ciccone, Don Bachardy, Tab Hunter, Barney Frank, Bruce Vilanch, Ross Bleckner, Simon Doonan, Michael Cunningham, Ned Rorem, Junior Vasquez, John Ashbery, Carson Kressley, David Del Tredici, Edmund White, John Bartlett and others. 

 

The series seeks to highlight positive role models for our nation’s GLBT youth.  The first book reached people on national television and radio, as well as in over 150 publications in over a dozen countries including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, Elle, Out, The Advocate, The Art Newspaper, Artforum, Art Ltd., Photo Life, Photo Selection and The Photo Review. 

 

Photos from the series also won first place in Portraiture from London's Worldwide Photography Gala Awards, first place in Portraiture in the Prix de la Photographie Paris competition, as well as additional awards from the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Center for Fine Art Photography, Manhattan Arts International, Artrom Gallery Guild (Rome), Kodak,CameraArts Magazine, Photo Life Magazine, Photographer's Forum Magazine, Graphis and Applied Arts.

 

The series, Kings in Their Castles, can be previewed at:

http://www.tomatwood.com/kings.php. 

 

If you’re aware of any subjects, feel free to reach me at this email or 310-503-7800.  Of if you know of anyone who might know or know of a VT newsgroup where this message could be posted, feel free to forward this to them or post this.

 

Thanks so much. 

 

Tom

 

Congratulations to Outright!

  Outright Vermont, has received a federal earmark 

  worth $100,000!  

Outright is the first Vermont LGBTQ organization to ever 

receive a federal earmark. The money will allow Outright to expand its anti-bullying work, which currently accounts for one-third of the small nonprofit’s $240,000 annual budget, to parts of the state that don’t typically get the message.

“This grant will help Outright Vermont provide critical support services to young Vermonters and help stamp out bullying for good,” Rep. Peter Welch says.  Click here to read the full Seven Days story: http://bit.ly/fpf0721

Todd's Peek in Review: “Jeffrey” by Paul Rudnick, Philosophical and Funny

 Paul Rudnick is a very funny writer, and Jeffrey was written by him and performed  back in the early 90’s.  It’s a play about our belief in being romantic, and gay in our times. The character of Jeffrey is central to the play set in New York City. The play speaks to the overall message of the fight against the Aids epidemic in our times.  We have nothing greater to fear than fear itself, and that includes living out our lives with the fear of Aids devastating lives.  The play, Jeffrey also speaks to the philosophical vantage point of being funny and romantic in trying times as the character, Jeffrey does so well.  To conquer something as deadly as Aids, we need to see the humor and romance in ourselves to make sense of life.  

As the play opens up, Jeffrey has decided not to have sex because he is bored with his life and life as a generality of concern.  However, he is not bored with being gay or wanting to find love.  As a  professional waiter in New York City in the 90’s, he has always found life creative and enduring, but somehow now feels inert about romance and feeling a sense of purpose to life.  In New York City terms, living there is aptly described as wild and crazy with the sense of diversity for the hubbub of it all!. 

He meets Steve who is HIV+, and does not know this about Steve at first.  They are immediately attracted to one another and are trying to decide whether or not to develop in romance as friends and lovers, based on   Jeffrey’s indecisiveness for wanting sex and Steve reluctance to show candor about being HIV+.  So much of the play is about Jeffrey seeing his gayness in “quasi terms”, which is really unexplained because he is not uncomfortable with being gay, yet feels disillusioned by the world. Life for Jeffrey and Steve is the backdrop to the play, being central to the paradox of two fundamental questions:  Is there life after sex?  More specifically, is there life after Aids or for that matter having sex after becoming HIV+ , or not?  That is the paradox, which we, the reader must face at times; in trying to come to terms with this parody on being gay in America.  

There is no truer context of understanding than what Jeffrey grapples with in the unexacting realm of Jeffrey’s World.  Jeffrey’s hopes and dreams as a gay man is also relative in essence to his life in New York City which can feel desensitized by the minutes.  There is always a need for being tenacious, as a means to an end and an end to a means. To be human is tellingly tenacious, no matter how big or small it feels to you! The play, Jeffrey is a metaphor for just that.  That kind of tenacity is self-fostering  to being human, as Jeffrey himself is in funny sketches and scenes throughout this very wry and fast moving play.  That makes the character, Jeffrey and the play Jeffrey, in and of  itself, funny and clearly real to me as such!

So give the play, Jeffrey the true romance it deserves by picking up a copy of it at RU12? and reading it for yourself.  This is a good play  to read and critique for September 2010 by seeing the funny and philosophical  “love connection  ringing out true to form”.  For the notion of the play itself resonates for me as well, as a gay man, knowing the feeling of needing to be on my own. Three cheers to Jeffrey, alas my friend for the goodness the play evokes in me, this September Review 2010 for RU12?!  Ciao, Todd