Now that marriage is won in Oregon, I am really excited for the LGBTQ community (and our allies) to get back to the still very pressing work of making schools safer, ending workplace discrimination, bringing cultural competency to systems which oppress us, building bridges with communities of faith who oppose us, pushing trans rights to the forefront of our agenda, and making sure our growing senior population is honored and celebrated, having paved the way for all of these modern victories so many years ago.

Celebrate tonight, friends — because tomorrow the work continues.

To find the LGBTQ Community Center nearest you to get involved and support this community, click HERE. In Oregon, click HERE to connect with Q Center.

(Photo: The Oregonian)

Big news today! Stargayzer Festival, the first multi-day music event of its kind dedicated to LGBTQ artists, just announced the second round of performers — a performance on the main stage by yours truly included! The festival will be held September 12th-14th, 2014 at Carson Creek Ranch, a private, 20-acre property just east of Austin. The festival will encompass three main stages, including an amphitheater stage on the banks of the Colorado River.

Among the highlights of today’s announcement are New Orleans “Queen of Bounce,” Big Freedia, poet and hip hop performance artist Mykki Blanco from New York, the powerhouse performance collective known as the San Francisco Album Project, Seattle-based dream pop quartet Night Cadet, plus Los Angeles comedian, star of VH1’s Best Week Ever, Brad Loekle…and ME, of course.

😉

Highlights from the first round of artist announcements included synth pop sensation Austra, experimental Canadian electro group Trust, avant-garde musical duo Xiu Xiu, art-punk group and recent Kylie Minogue collaborator SSION, drag terrorist CHRISTEENE, queer hip-hop icon Cazwell, producer, DJ and MEN lead singer JD Samson, former LCD Soundsystem member Gavin Russom’s latest project the Crystal Ark, emerging queer rapper Cakes Da Killa, and from the first season of The Voice, the blues crooner Nakia. The DJ line up includes vogue/ballroom innovator MikeQ, the futuristic hip-hop sounds of Kingdom, and the San Francisco based DJ collective Honey Sound System. As for drag performers, the legendary Peaches Christ will join Mitzy Meyers (aka Junebug) of New Orleans, the girls of Hot Nuts Toronto, Ambrosia Salad of Los Angeles, and Austin’s most notable dame, Rebecca Havemeyer.

Full lineup (so far):

See you this summer, Texas!  Get tickets HERE.

(Originally Published on Queer Voices on 4/24/2014)

If you listen to NPR / PRI in the U.S., you already know Jian Ghomeshi as an award-winning broadcaster, writer, musician, producer and host of the multimedia phenomenon known simply as “Q” — or as The Washington Post calls it, “the most popular new arts and culture radio show in America”. If you are Canadian, or at all familiar with Canadian media, pop culture, or the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), then you know Jian Ghomeshi is a household name in that country — and he is well on his way to becoming one in this country as you read this.

Born in London, England, of Iranian descent, Jian Ghomeshi is smart, talented and handsome — a triple threat with a sharp tongue, unabashedly advocating for the voiceless among us along his journey to the top. He was recently named one of Maclean’s Magazine’s “50 Most Important People In Canada” and one of Read the rest of this entry »