On this episode of Gender Blender Jacob Anderson-Minshall and Carla from Outloud started out with a little comedy with members of Comedy Curious?, which will be performing June 18th 8 & 10 pm, at the Curious Comedy Theatre.
Belinda Carroll- headlined the Austin GLBT Pride festival, has promoted and produced shows from Austin, Texas to Portland, Oregon, preformed all over the country and is a regular contributing writer for Curve Magazine, OurBigGayborhood and GAY! E-magazine.
Jessica Halem- called “BRAVE and BAWDY” by Time Out Chicago, was raised by hippie Jewish artists from the East Coast which was anything but normal – or easy – in small town Ohio. An experience with the hate-speech KITE scrawled on her locker helped foster this very funny “on-your-face” comic.
Whitney Streed the incomparable host.
Other comedians who will be part of the show but were not on the radio show include
Kelli Dunham- New York City, Fresh Fruit award-winning stand up comic Kelli Dunham is the also the author of four humorous non-fiction books, a frequent contributor to Curve Magazine and has appeared nationwide at colleges, clubs, women’s festivals, and pride celebrations and on both Showtime and the Discovery Network and even (once) at a livestock auction. She is the co-founder of Queer Memoir, the NYC based LGBT storysharing event, and has two comedy CDs “I am NOT a 12 Year Old Boy” and “Almost Pretty” in regular rotation on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Raw Dog station.
Holly Lorka -Austin, Texas is naughty and nice, sweet and sour, and likes BBQ with her porn. and has performed for Ladies Are Funny Festival and the Out Of Bounds Comedy Festival. She has been lauded by L-style/G-style and Lez-Go Magazine. She’s also a current semi-finalist in Austin’s Funniest Person contest.
Comedy Curious? June 18th 8 & 10 pm, at the Curious Comedy Theatre, 5225 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Portland. Tickets from $5 advace via eventbrite
Following the comedians we heard the song "Love You Better" by Godess and She (which will be playing at Portland's Pride Festival)
Then Jacob and Carla spoke with Jenn Burleton, the Executive Director of TransActive and Jennifer Lanier aka Bruce TD King, a two spirit performer who will be MCing this weekend’s pride events. Jenn and Jennifer talked about Pride events. TransActive is having an adults only Dance Party that will benefit the organization (which is dedicated to helping trans and gender variant youth) Friday, June 18th, Boxxes & Red Cap Garage, 1035 SW Stark Street.
The hosts detailed the new parade route and noted a change to the schedule on the community stage Saturday, 19th, 4:30pm to 5:15 it will be the burlesque group Bang Bang Betty’s Big Beautiful Bombshells (B6) who will be joined by Bruce TD King, Zora Phoenix, dirty juggling and several other acts.
A musical break was provided by Melange Lavonne's Gay Bash song, which is a powerful tribute to a fallen gay friend. As most Portlander's know, there have been a spate of gay bashings locally. Today Just Out announced new initiatives to improve safety that include training Portland Police officers and developing street patrols. The guests talked about the violence and how LGBT individuals can stay safe this Pride weekend. Jacob announced that Outloud and Gender Blender will continue to cover this story as it developes.
Another musical break, this one provided by Cliks was followed by a discussion about the recent change announced by the State Department in terms of how they will deal with gender changes when it comes to Passports. Jenn Burleton and Jacob Anderson-Minshall were joined in the discussion by Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality via phone. They talked about this historic event and what it means for transgender individuals in states that won't allow them to change identity paperwork without surgery (this allows those individuals to get a ID in their new gender without undergoing surgery).
Jacob announced the Annual T party A FREE! gathering for genderqueers, transfolks, and dragsters
Fri. June 18, 5pm until dark, Overlook Park, N Fremont & Interstate. Hot BBQ grills and snacks provided
but bring additional food, drinks or games to share.
Useful Links
Belinda Carroll belindacarrollcomedy.com
Curious Comedy Theatre curiouscomedy.org
TransActive transactiveonline.org
Gay Pride Events pridenw.org
Jennifer Lanier jenniferlanier.com
National Center for Transgender Equality transequality.org
The New Policy on Gender Change in Passports state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/06/142922.htm
- KBOO