Interview
Ari Gold on music and being Jewish
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A
Interview
David Moretti on being a gay TV celeb
page 33
Timeline
A look at gay history
page 15
Noted. Notable . Notewordiy. LGBT News & Views
Volume 22 . Number 10 www.q-notes.com September 22.2007
NC Pride Preview: what you can expect
Back for another year, the annual
celebration promises more fun and a
special celebrity guest
by Donald Miller
DURHAM — North Carolina’s annual gay
Pride march and festival is slated for Sept. 29.
Under the theme “United for Equalit)^’ a week
end-long celebration will actuaUy kick off
Sept. 28, continuing through Sept. 30 and will
indude events in Durham, Chapel Hill,
Raleigh, Morrisville and Greensboro.
“We’re expecting about the same size
crowd this year as we had last,” speculates NC
Pride Spokesperson Keith Hayes. “Around
7,500. What we’ve really achieved is a wonder
ful sort of stasis. The parade is as long as it
can be. We have secured the maximum num
ber of vendors we can, which is about 120.
We’ve got a great relationship with Duke
University, the local police and the businesses
along the parade route. One of our goals was
to build bridges with the non-gay community,
and we have done that. We’re totally welcome
there. It’s lots of fun and it’s really kind of a
joyous event.”
One of the new features this year is the
addition of some bigger name celebrity acts
. that will appear at events leading up to the
Pride celebration and during Pride itself. Set
for pre-party appearances at the Steel Blue
Club in Durham on Sept. 28 at 9 p.m. are per
formances by Someone’s Sister and
Disappear Fear. On the day of the march and
festivd attendees will be treated to perform
ances by the Atlanta Fredom Marching Band,
The Common Woman Chorus, The Imani
Singers and former Village People member
Randy Jones.
Jones is a native of Raleigh and performed
as the original “cowboy” member of the group
during its heydey. After the group left
Casablanca Records in the early ’80s, Jones left
the Village People, saying it was time to move
on. It was, perhaps, a smart move on his part.
The Village People went on to sign a contract
with RCA and took a stab at new wave pop with
their only album on the label, “Renaissance.”
Although they would later resurface and see
further success as a popular nostalgia act, Jones
only performed with them again just briefly,
preferring instead to branch out on his own
and pursue independent projects. In recent
years he’s releas^ a new compilation of dance
music entitled “Ticket to the World” and took
on the role of God in the Off-Broadway hit
“Sodom and Gomorrah.”
“We’re also very excited to have Sen. Filip
Kinnaird as our keynote speaker at this year’s
Randy Jones, a Raleigh native and former
iconic gay disco group The Village People,
Pride mainstage.
festival. She’s been extremely supportive of the
LGBT commuity and has been a long-time
ally’ Hayes reports’.
Re-elected in November 2006 by an over
whelming 74 percent of the vote, Kinnaird is
now in her sbcth term in the North Carolina
Senate representing the people of Orange and
Person Counties. She con
tinues to push for good
jobs and better hedthcare
security, for further cam
paign and lobby reform,
for effective improvements
in the education system
and for a safe and healthy
environment.
Leading off the parade
as the Grand Marshall this
year is Gary Palmer, the
assistant vice president of
community affairs from
Replacements Limited.
From the Triad area.
Palmer’s selection as Grand
Marshall is in keeping with
tradition of picking a repre
sentative each year from a
different part of the state.
“That’s why it’s impor
tant for everyone from all over North Carolina
to attend,” says Hayes. “Because this truly is
about the entire state.” >
— For more details about NC Pride events see
the schedule of events on page 12.
member of the
will take to the
Kate Bornstein to perform at UNC-Chariotte
Trans activist, author and perform
ance artist will host workshops and a
lecture/spoken word presentation
by David Moore . Q-Notes staff
Kate Bornstein is a beautiful mass of con
tradictions.
‘I know I’m not a man and I don’t feel like a woman. That
makes me laugh so that must mean I’m getting it all right.’
— Kate Bornstein
Photo Credit: Anita Khempka
Congress debates ENDA
page 24
She had gender reassignment surgery 21
years ago at the age of 38. “I never felt like a
heterosexual male,” she recalls. It was like an
acting job. “So after the surgery I found myself
living the life of a woman and learning to do
the day-to-day things a woman does.”
Throw another item into the mix that leaves
a lot of people — including some in the LGBT
community — scratch
ing their head: after
gender reassignment
surgery Bornstein even
tually settled down into
a long-term relationship
with genetically-born
female, author, sex edu
cator and theater artist
Barbara Carellas.
So why bother hav
ing the surgery to
become a member of
the opposite gender
when you already enjoy
having sex with partners of the opposing gen
der, you ask?
For Bornstein and fans of her books and
performance pieces, the answer to that is obvi
ous. “It’s about your gender identity, not your
sexual orientation,” says Felicia Mackenzie, a
22-year-old trans woman from San Fracisco
who identifies as bisexual. “Sexual orientation
and gender identity are two totally different
things. Gender identity is who you feel like
inside. Sexual orientation is who you find
yourself physically attracted to. The two aren’t
mutually exclusive.”
Now over two decades later, Bornstein says
she’s neither a man nor a woman. And even
though she’s about to turn 60, she concedes
that she feels a bit like a 21-year-old girl.
Fact of Lhe matter is, Bonnstein docs pos
sess the enthusiam of someone far younger
than her chronological years. It’s evident in her
observations and her sense of humor. She likes
to laugh: She likes to make you laugh, too.
Talking to Q-Notes from her brownstone
Most Fortune 500s offer benefits
page 5
apartment in New York City’s Spanish Harlem.
neighborhood, Bornstein says she and her part
ner have the best deal in town because they’re
living in the last slum in all of Manhattan.
“We have 15-foot ceilings and our own
backyard,” she offers enthusiastically. “We get
along great with our landlord, too.”
StiU, it’s evident that Bornstein, despite all
her years advocating the life of a big city girl,
is somewhat ready to slow dowfi. “We’ll be
here a couple of more years and then go some
where else,” she says. “Probably someplace
quiet, a little seaside town, but then we’ll prob
ably keep a smaller place in the city.”
The author of such noted books as “Gender
OutlawJ’“My Gender Workbook” and “Hello
Cruel World,” Bornstein began life as a Jewish
boy from New Jersey named Albert. She says
she revolted against Judaism as a young hippie
boy following an argument with a Rabbi.
“I ran off and left graduate school to fast
see trans on 25
Union changes policy
page 7