Marriage Equality: LGBT Pride 2015

Amazing Colossal Mayor De Blasio Leads the March

New York City Pride Day is on Sunday, the birthplace of the modern LGBT movement, commemorating the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. This year, in particular, we have so much to celebrate!

In 2013, President Obama boldly declared that June was officially Pride month and that the LGBT community's struggle for equality needed to be addressed.

Well, at last, it seems it's all not been in vain. Recently, NYC granted landmark status to the Stonewall Inn, where it all began. And this morning came the news that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-gender marriage nationwide. A victory! Excellent sense of timing; gay people always knew we could depend on the Supremes.

The struggle continues, of course, as bigotry will continue. Nonetheless, the importance of this decision in immense. The gay community is thankful for our straight friends and allies who have supported us, been there for us and with us, and marched with us in the parade. We are one.

Amazing, I was born at the right time to be swept up in history and caught up in a movement that meant personal liberation for me in the end. It liberated me to be who I am in many ways, not just my sexuality. And, for that, I am eternally thankful.

Midler on the Roof at NYC's Metropolitan Room

Carly Ozard is a cabaret treasure, and that she proved last night at the Metropolitan Room where she revived -- and revised -- her show, "Midler on the Roof."

I saw Carly perform this act at The Triad last October. It cleverly intertwines Miss M's songbook with autobiographical tales, the heartbreaking, uplifting and the completely inspiring.

The Divine Miss O -- who brought this show to town for LGBT Pride week and a day before Bette herself performs at Madison Square Garden -- was certainly in fine fettle last night with a powerhouse voice that sometimes felt like a refreshing summer storm had been unleashed. The crowed adored her and expressed as much with thunderous applause.

"Midler on the Roof" was directed by Kristine Zbornik and musically directed by Steven Ray Watkins (on piano). Tim Lykins was on drums and Daniel Fabricatore on bass. Back-up vocals were supplied by Karen Mack and Jennifer Haber. Kudos to all for outstanding work.

Ms Ozard is not a Bette Midler impersonator but a powerful interpreter of her idol's songs. Those songs included Midler favorites like "Delta Dawn," "The Rose" and "Shiver Me Timbers."  The "Hello in There/Wind Beneath My Wings" medley was extremely moving. Disco Bette Carly-style rocked the house with "Knight in Black Leather" "I'm Beautiful, Dammit!" and "Married Men." "I Put a Spell on You" (from the film Hocus Pocus) also excited the crowd with its ferociously upbeat energy.

Carly closed with "Friends" and belted "Rose's Turn" out of the park, so to speak, for an encore.

A delightful and, really, flawless performance right down to the technical aspects of light and sound. Thank you, Richard Skipper, for inviting my friend, Nick Lion, and I to the event. And thanks to the staff at the Metropolitan Room for providing first-rate, attentive service.

Kevin Scott Hall Brings Back the West Village's Golden Days with Poetry at the Bar

The only thing missing from Kevin Hall's reviving the Village's bohemian days at the Duplex on Christopher Street were the bongo drums, babies! Maybe next time.

Seated at the bar in the packed room (thankfully an early arriver), I coincidentally sat next to a man who was a long-time Leave It to Beaverhausen lover! Wonderful to meet an actual fan at a club! Michael Dionne worked the upstairs Duplex bar diligently and gracefully. He and Kevin had worked together as bartenders at the old Rose's Turn which added a nice touch of comaraderie to the event. Happy Hour, a modern invention since the Village's beatnik days, added a pleasant remodeled feel to the event which was not presented in the cabaret room but at the bar room as in the iconoclastic days of yore. We were fellow rebels.

Kevin's Annual Pride Writers show brought together six talented scribes: her nibs, the clever lesbian comic writer Sissy Van Dyke (who said hers is "not just a name, it's a lifestyle"), poets Ricardo Hernandez who added 2015 flair by reading poems off his cell phone; Lee Leong Koh -- a Korean-born poet now a NYC boy; the very entertaining Kate Walter, reading from her memoir, all took turns at the mike.

Biographer James Gavin -- of Peggy Lee: Is That All There Is, which I reviewed last November -- was there and I got to meet him at last. I was very flattered to hear he'd read it when I published it and he said it gave him confidence in the book's success critically and commercially.

Kevin opened the show by reading a tragi-comic passage from his own novel, A Quarter Inch from My Heart.

All the writers assembled were amazingly dynamic in their recitals. Nothing wan; all were wonderful dramaturges. I encourage you to seek these artists out on the Internet.

So, thank you Kevin and The Duplex for bringing art and culture back to a Village bistro. Sipping wine and hearing writers and poets at the second-floor bar was a wonderful throwback experience, but one I hope will carry on. The show was a benefit for New Alternatives Advocates for LGBT Youth.

The Duplex is on the corner of 7th Avenue and Christopher Street, just two doors away from the historic Stonewall bar. What a fabulous experience for Gay Pride week in NYC! And what a retro-progressive new tradition in restoring literature as a lively art in this great city of ours!

Michael Dionne and Kevin Hall

Gay Pride Special: I, Ivana

Here I am, below, on the recording, at a seriously crowded party in 1989, impersonating Ivana Trump in drag and doing my own singing. I also had some ribald patter to deliver and wrote that myself.

As Sheila Gillerman, I performed several times at Rose's Turn, booked by the fabulous Sidney Meyer. I was a five-time award-winner at the now-defunct Crowbar in the East Village. They had a weekly drag competition hosted by the legendary Mona Foot.

I did my own singing, in character, and considered what I did performance art. I wrote my own patter and almost all of my songs. Everything I performed I considered social satire and a reflection of the times and my perceived direction of pop culture.

My friend, Ron Davis, dug into his archives and found me performing as Sheila as Ivana (audio).

Ron wrote: "a RARE Historic archival recording of Sheila Gillerman in a live performance of another one of her huge hits in the persona of Ivana Tramp. The official title of this number is "The World Is My Oyster But You Won't Get In My Clam (Megabucks)". Most folks just know this number affectionately as "Megabucks". Again this is obviously from a bootleg tape surreptitiously recorded. Sheila's work at the Actor's Studio clearly has paid off especially when, in her character as Ivana Tramp, she exudes such monumental contempt for the less privileged. A tour de force performance. You'll undoubtedly notice the studio audience enjoyment! A rare performance indeed!" 

http://members.toast.net/rldbeverly/sheilagillerman/megabucks-norm-150613.mp3

Can it be I'm the only male Ivana Trump impersonator? Vonder vhy. Happy LGBT Pride Month, y'all!

My Gay Agenda for NYC Pride 2014

Last year for LGBT Pride, it was John Waters at City Winery on Saturday night and, on Pride Sunday, I was at the Pier Dance where Cher and Deborah Cox performed for us live. This year, my gay agenda on Pride Day is to take in the laundry and clean the house. Well, that's how it rolls nowadays in this life.

Yes, I miss the 18 years at 12 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan when the march would proceed past my building and where I hosted many brunches. We'd all go down to the stoop to watch, with refreshments, and the john was right upstairs.

I first participated in the march in 1974 when it was a grass roots one that couldn't be mistaken for a parade. Since that time, I've seen many victories for LGBT people and, yet, the struggle for equality continues, seems endless.

We are now 45 years from the Stonewall Riots and still we observe and celebrate the public uprising that sparked the modern gay liberation movement. Without a group to march in, and hating the crush of the crowds and the abominable long lines to the Port-o-Sans and police barriers to herd the human traffic along and the heat, I will opt to stay home and observe, from afar, a ritual I have participated in throughout the '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s and '10s, often marching, later more frequently an observer, always a supporter in heart and mind.

So, pardon me if I sit this one out. I'm thrilled it's a sunny day for the march, and a nice evening for the dance and the fireworks over the Hudson River. Tomorrow, I will read The New York Times' coverage and head count. It is a tally of the marchers only (not the sidewalk crowds observing) and still often suspiciously low when pitted against our own observations. The New York Post will concentrate on any kind of misbehavior on the street and clutch the pearls at how much skin is revealed, no matter the sweltering heat.

I am glad younger generations of gay men, lesbians, transgendered and bisexual people will participate and take up the cause for equality and social progress while older ones might wonder once more if the event has gotten overly commercialized. In the end, though, we are all part of the same movement and we share a social status; we are all alike in at least one unique way.

And, Buddy Beaverhausen ultimately observes, social protests are always sexy and you might get laid at today's celebration. Play safe as I drop off my gay laundry!