We’ve been braised by the Chicago sun numerous times this summer while standing in multitudinous crowds, but what could one more weekend hurt? Especially when it’s Lollapalooza. The annual music fest is Chicago’s largest, taking place in Grant Park across 7 stages and from before noon on Friday until nearly midnight on Sunday. This weekend, enjoy some of our suggested awesome queer and not-so-queer, but still dear, musical acts.

On Friday, enjoy the oddly melodic Devo (4 PM) and Dirty Projectors (5 PM) if work lets you out to play. Follow up with former Mondayers Chromeo (7 PM), and wrap up the night with your choice of the sexy Strokes or Her Royal Strangeness Lady Gaga.

Saturday brings the sublime Rogue Wave (1 PM) or the spicy Dragonette (1:45 PM), or strategize a way to see Stars (2:15) in the daytime. Savor the afternoon delight of Grizzly Bear (4:15 PM), then dance the night away with Cut Copy (7:30 PM) and Empire of the Sun (9 PM). In the interim, try some of the francophilic pleasures brought by Phoenix (8:30 PM).

If you find yourself able to crawl out of bed and into the morning light on Sunday, might we suggest a toast to HEALTH (11:30 AM)? Take a chaser of Didi Gutman (from Brazilian Girls)’s DJ set (1:30 PM), and then head to Yeasayer at 4 PM. Time your heartbeat to the earthy tones of Erykah Badu at 5 PM and get a bit surreal with MGMT (6 PM). Go out with a blaze with The Arcade Fire (8:30 PM). Hopefully, these recommendations keep your weekend flowing from start to finish.

Just 5 days ago, Argentina set a historic precedent as the first Latin American nation to legalize same-sex marriage. The 33-27 Senate vote was a fitting passage as part of President Cristina Fernandez’ administration, and even received lauds from Mexico City which offered a free honeymoon to the first gay Argentine couple to marry.

After months of humiliation and injustice for wanting to attend her high school prom with her girlfriend, Constance McMillen has finally received a settlement from the northern Mississippi school district that refused her entrance and canceled the official prom to prevent McMillen’s attendance. McMillen received $35,000 in damages, and the ACLU, who led the prosecution of the school district, were able to effect an agreement from the school district to enforce a non-discrimination policy for gay students.

An adjunct professor at the University of Illinois was recently fired for making disparaging comments about homosexuality in his Catholicism classes. Kenneth Howell was appointed to teach these Catholic studies classes by St. John’s Catholic Newman Center through a partnership with U of I that began in 1971; the university will now be reviewing this policy to assess if it violates the separation of church and state and hope to have a firm new policy by the fall semester.

Instead of focusing on musicians this week since we’re exhausted from the fantastic weekend we spent at Pitchfork, we would like to turn your attention to something equally fantastic, especially in the city of Chicago: slam poetry. Before the National Poetry Slam steals away our local poets in August, two local teams will be battling it out on the mic at Butterfly Social Club (722 W. Grand, off the Grand Blue Line stop)–this event features Team Green Mill (Roger Bonair Agard, Robbie Q Telfer, JW Baz, Tristan Silverman, Amy David) and Team Mental Graffiti (Marty McConnell, Emily Rose, Billy Tuggle, Andi Kauth, John Davis) going head-to-head in a friendly but spirited competition. Stop by tomorrow, Monday, July 19 at 8 PM to see the show; and for those of you who want the opportunity to jam the mic yourself, stop by early to sign up for the open mic preceding the show.

UPDATE: The show was incredible–beyond the Mental Graffiti and Green Mill performers, student performers from Young Chicago Authors competed and rivaled their more established counterparts. Stand-out performances from Tristan Silverman describing the challenges of runner Caster Semenya and Andi Kauth meditating on bulimia were well-matched by amazing poems performed surrounding them from J.W. Baz, Emily Rose and Amy David.

As of June 10, transgender Americans are able to acquire a passport for their preferred gender without having to go through sexual reassignment surgery first. The State Department has stated that transgender individuals only need documentation from a doctor that she or he has been through proper clinical treatment.

The U.S. Department of Labor will be announcing new regulations this week that will allow same-sex couples time off to care for newborns or significant others. The regulations will extend the Family and Medical Leave Act, a nearly twenty-year-old law that allows  heterosexual couples 12 weeks unpaid time to care for their spouses or loved ones and newborns.

Iraqi police raided a safe house in Karbala last Tuesday and arrested 6 LGBT people. One person has been located in a local hospital; the remaining five–two transgender people, two gay men, and one lesbian–have still not been located, but are speculated to be held at Baghdad’s Interior Ministry, according to UK-based organization Iraqi LGBT.

The Chicago Blackhawks are spreading the enthusiasm of their Stanley Cup win to the queers. Defenseman Brent Sopel will be accompanying the Cup during this year’s Pride Parade on Sunday, June 27 as part of the Chicago Gay Hockey Association’s float. The Chicago Cubs will also be the first major sports team to have a float in the Chicago Pride Parade as part of this year’s festivities.

Today may be the first day of summer, but Chicago has already been demonstrating what it proves best at this time: that it is a city with a soul of music. Between the Blues, Jazz and Gospel festivals, the ubiquitous Pitchfork and Lollapalooza ads and the free concerts in Millenium Park, there are plenty of opportunities to witness great performances and hear awesome music. But what if you want to get in on the action yourself and serenade this fair city? Logan Square’s Crown Tap Room has got you covered with a weekly Open Mic, every Wednesday from 9 PM to midnight.

If you’ll take note of the feisty femme with the literally dangerous curves in our sidebar, you’ll see that June 30th is the bar’s first Open Mic contest, awarding audience-picked winners with a recording session, a Japonais gift card and other fun prizes. Mix that with $2 PBRs and tequila shots–it’s better than mixing those things with allergy medication–and a free drink for performers, and that’s a summer night you’ll be singing about with more conviction than 30-year-old high schoolers. Kick back with Cul de sac at Crown Tap any Wednesday you choose and reveal your inner songster, slam poet or awkward dummyless ventriloquist.

Though rife with potatoes, potato bugs and Latter-Day Saints, Idaho isn’t just a state anymore. For the last five years, it has also been an acronym for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (hopefully, we will soon see an IDAHOT). Monday’s Chicago demonstration took place in Millenium Park at Monroe and Michigan and was a combined effort between the Gay Liberation Network, Courage Nigeria and the Coalition for Justice and Respect. Nigerian gay activist John Adewoye spoke while supporters marched with rainbow flags and passed out literature about the troubling laws and conditions facing many African LGBT people.

IDAHO is a kick-off to the Harvey Milk Week of Action which supports the gay icon’s legacy by mobilizing a politically oriented queer community. The week is sponsored by GLN, CJR, Join the Impact, LGBT Change and Columbia College’s LGBT resource Common Ground. Other events to celebrate this week include a Flashmob at Federal Plaza (230 S. Dearborn) on Thursday at noon and a Queer Noise open mic at New Wave Coffee (2557 N. Milwaukee Blvd.) on Friday at 8pm. The week ends with a Saturday march and rally in honor of Harvey Milk Day, beginning at Michigan and Congress at 1pm. Get your gay feet moving and make strides against homophobia this week.

The intersection of faith and sex through art at Gender Fusions 6

by Kevin Sparrow

Photos by Jon Mathias

What do a priest, a vampire and chocolate syrup have in common? This is not a set-up to a joke–although if you answered “things that prey on little boys,” we would accept that; these are a few subjects of Gender Fusions 6, an annual celebration of alternative gender identities and sexualities. As part of Columbia College Chicago‘s LGBTQ Office of Culture and Community and a project developed from the school’s Critical Encounters program Fact and Faith, this year’s program cast its gaze at the intersection of religion and sexual politics with “Our Temple of Transgressions.” The sacred and the profane came together in a variety of acts by Columbia students, faculty and members of Chicago’s artistic community with proceeds from the event going to benefit the Broadway Youth Center.

Performer and oracle for the evening Guillermo Gomez-Peña

As professed by Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence Lott Hll and LGBTQ Office Coordinator K. Bradford, Gender Fusions was fortunate to have performer and “border artist extraordinaire” Guillermo Gomez-Peña as the master of ceremonies. Gomez-Peña began the night’s festivities clad in a tassled skirt of metal-studded belts, a skeleton glove and spangled gauntlets, and a black-booted leg paired with a bare, high-heeled one. The dichotomies evident in Gomez-Peña’s wardrobe were expanded in his presentation “Strange Democracies,” mixing political outrage, sexual aggressiveness and personal strife by discussing the role of the artist in modern society. Gomez-Peña’s vision of “hope not connected to God, country or economy… [but] in small communities” versus the current “communities of sameness” is one that resonates with queer audiences who hope that their diversity becomes recognized as a preferable mode of society.

The parade down South Wabash leading to the “temple of transgressions”

Gomez-Peña led audience members and performers in a parade down Wabash to the “temple of transgressions,” where a series of 21 performers presented their songs, poems, dance, drama and selves. Two-time National Poetry Slam competition finalist Tristan Silverman, who wrote and performed a piece specifically for the event, said, “What I think makes Gender Fusions so essential is that it… has the backing and the funding from an academic institution, so you fund [artists] to be here… for people in the crowd who might want to do something similar or might have been doing some things similar, it’s almost an education in itself… Things like live performance art are important because it’s extra risky, it’s extra vulnerable. The potential is increased in terms of the reward.” The serious nature of many of the pieces was met with levity in the form of burlesque by Hot Tamale and Hot Toddy, a humorous magician and sidekick riff by Donnell and Kandy and a hilarious take on a conversation between Kanye West and Jesus by Columbia students Erica Quinn and Nicki Butler.

Burlesque artist Hot Tamale reinterprets “Not an Addict” for chocoholics

The night ended with a bang–nearly literally–with a performance by La Pocha Nostra and students from the year-long Critical Encounters workshop. The unscripted and interactive performance was a study in tableaux; performers slowly approached the stage, some in different stages of undress, and tasked themselves with a multitude of actions. Gomez-Peña acted as ringleader and stopped the performers every so often, soliciting audience input on the image before them before allowing those on stage to proceed. The audience was invited to participate more intimately by joining those on stage and subsequently being stripped of their clothes. The ease with which many people abandoned reservations about being disrobed in public–a pretty common nightmare theme–while the audience watched, some in shock and some in admiration, was proof that queer systems of sexual identity are beginning to be viable for many people and and reveal that we all can afford to be a little more open when it comes to our sexual expression.

The April 6 death of Polish president Lech Kaczynski has left many in the LGBT community tentative about what the future holds for Poland now that their allegedly homophobic leader is gone. The plane crash that claimed Kaczynski also killed pro-gay politician Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, who stood up to Kaczynski when he was mayor of Warsaw to demand that a gay pride parade be allowed to commence in the city. Jaruga-Nowacka was a 2005 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Jim Carrey-Ewan McGregor film I Love You Phillip Morris is still awaiting distribution, waiting a whole year before getting a March 26th initial release date that was bumped back to April 30th and is now postponed indefinitely. The story revolves around a homosexual relationship that forms between Carrey and McGregor after they meet in prison and contains some graphic sexual material, which some consider to be the main reason for the delayed release.

This Saturday, head by Columbia College to see outstanding performances by LGBT artists and students. The sixth annual Gender Fusions will be held across Columbia’s campus, starting with a 5 PM performance at 618 S. Michigan by Guillermo Gomez-Pena of La Pocha Nostra, heading up to a parade down Wabash, and ending with performances at 8PM at 1104 S. Wabash.

Live dating show Single Mingle gives queer Chicagoans an entertaining Valentine’s weekend

by Kevin Sparrow

Dimmed lighting; dark, oblong ottomans and booth-like sofas; the sounds of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé pounding over subdued conversation: you may think you’ve just walked into a gay man’s basement, and you would be close. Chicago’s weekly live dating show, Single Mingle, held their first Big Gay Valentine’s Day event this past Saturday, February 13 at Spybar. Although the first queer-oriented evening, this is Single Mingle’s third show since opening on January 23, and they have been winning over admirers since. “It’s fun, it’s classy, and I like that there’s good people here… it’s a good idea because sometimes it’s hard to meet people,” says audience member Karen.

The innovative program not only has fans who are voyeurs; the participants feel that the event is helping breathe some new life into the queer community. “I think Chicago could really own itself more in its queerness,” says contestant Jessica. “I used to live in Boystown, but there was something almost desperately adolescent about it… I’m really excited for Chicago to mature in its queer scene.” Not only does Single Mingle allow a reprieve from typical nightspots of the Chicago LGBT community, it also helps those who are entering that community for the first time, as contestant Keith relates with his motivations for signing up. “I just moved to the city. I don’t know anyone up here yet, so it’s a good way to meet people.”

The show is split into two sessions, this night featuring a group of lesbians followed by a group of gay men engaging in a humorous mixture of meet-cute and ribaldry. Single Mingle’s main bachelor or bachelorette learns more about the three people on the other side of an expertly placed screen through a brief Q&A, friend testimonials, and some assistance from audience applause during a blind-folded couple’s dance with each contestant. “I think it’s definitely good to break it up,” says audience member Gwen of the dance portion of the program. “You can’t just ask a lot of questions, people get flustered.” Their tied tongues were loosened by loquacious hosts Tana McFarlane and Mitchel Migliore as well as special guest host JaJa Galliano, who helped by combing the audience for friends of the contestants to provide crucial personal information.

Interspersed with the main show were an interstitial performance of “Plastic Barbie” by JaJa, a raffle for champagne and opportunities for current singles to sign up as future contestants. The final couples were provided a $75 gift certificate to Rosebud Trattoria for a romantic first date, and audience members were supplied free condoms, gift cards to SEE eyewear and a memorable show.

At the annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 4, President Obama condemned Ugandan legislation that would penalize homosexual people for engaging in homosexuality. Speaking before a room filled with sponsors of the breakfast, the Fellowship Foundation–an organization linked to efforts to pass the anti-LGBT bill–Obama called the measures “unconscionable” and “odious.”

60 members of Congress have signed a letter addressed to President Obama urging him to pass the comprehensive immigration-reform Uniting American Families Act with language that allows LGBT U.S. nationals to sponsor their partners
in binational families.

The European Parliament reaffirmed today that securing LGBT rights were an important consideration for candidate countries applying to join the European Union.

A school program for LGBT students recently opened in Los Angeles. A collaboration with Opportunities for Learning, the anti-harassment school would offer around 40 7th through 12th graders an alternative program with an independent study angle. Students meet with an instructor twice a week and spend the other weekdays completing a full day of schoolwork at home.

If you are planning on spending your Valentine’s weekend eating pints of Chubby Hubby and watching Love, Actually fourteen times, fear not! Single Mingle will be hosting their Big Gay Valentine’s Day show at Spybar (646 N. Franklin) on Saturday, February 13. Single Mingle utilizes familiar dating game elements in a live environment that allows the crowd to size each other up and pair off while three predetermined contestants vie for the hand of one lucky lonesome. Doors open at 6 PM followed by two shows separated by an intermission.

If you’re looking for something to do with a special someone this weekend, head to Chicago’s Freedom to Marry Day events, which will include a demonstration by the LGBTQA Liberation Network on Valentine’s Day outside Holy Name Cathedral (735 N. State St.) picketing Cardinal Francis George and his efforts within the Catholic church to staunch equal marriage. Meet up at 10:30 AM, just in time for mass! London will be holding a similar demonstration that day to protest a visit by the Pope, organizing for a secular Europe as well as LGBT and women’s rights.