Chicago Go Pride
Milwaukee Pride announces PridetoberFest 2021 line-up for Oct. 8 and 9
By GoPride.com News Staff
September 23, 2021

Like many June Pride festivals nationwide, Milwaukee PrideFest was canceled in both 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns. But organizers decided to bring it back this year in a different form.

“We just couldn’t wait until 2022 to see our LGBTQ+ family and allies again,” Luke Olson, PrideFest producer and Milwaukee Pride vice president, said in July. “October is LGBTQ+ History Month along with National Coming Out Day (which is Oct. 11). What better moment to gather and reflect on the long journey that got us to this point — and of course, to celebrate!”

The scaled-back fest is scheduled for 3 p.m. to midnight Friday, Oct. 8, and noon to midnight Saturday, Oct. 9.

Friday entertainment includes Jaida Esence Hall, GottMik, Fly Young Red, Big Freedia, Lardi B., and the Doo Wop Daddies. DJs LoLo, Femme Noir, Marcus Angel and Chomper will provide the beats at the popular Dance Pavilion. Comedian Bruce Vilanch will host the Miller Stage throughout the day.

The Sabor Latino Drag Show, Antics, ShayKenn, and Landon Devon round out day one entertainment. 

On Saturday the lineup will feature performances by Revamped Dance Company and the World Dance Showcase, as well as Betsy Ade and the Well-Known Strangers, Ethan Cole, Skratt and FXY, Travvy Trav, GGOOLLDD, and Daniel LeClaire.

DJs Mel-Down and Haunt3Hous3 at the Dance Pavilion, with the DJ Shawna “Closing Dance Party” at 10:30 p.m. Drag performances include Lady Gia’s Drag Show, Montell’s Melanin Extravaganza, Lenda Jo, Bryanna Banx$, and the “Closing Performance” with Jaida Essence Hall at 10:15 p.m.

PridetoberFest visitors are required to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or recent negative COVID-19 test.

Tickets are just $12. Online ticket sales generate a $1 donation per ticket to the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center. Active-duty military service members and veterans receive free admission upon presentation of their valid military ID.

For additional PridetoberFest information, visit pridefest.com.

Organizers hope to bring Milwaukee PrideFest in June 2022. 

The post PridetoberFest 2021: Oct 8 & 9 With Bruce Vilanch Hosting The First Day first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Broadway World
THE LAVENDER EFFECT(R) Presents Live Virtual Pride Parade, May 30
BWW Desk
May 29, 2021

Come celebrate this year’s PRIDE live with THE LAVENDER EFFECT Star-studded Live Virtual Pride Parade which will be broadcast on Sunday, May 30, 2021 at 12 noon PST/3p EST via YouTube.com/c/TheLavenderEffect.

This year’s Virtual PRIDE Parade’s Host will be Alec Mapa. Mapa’s TV and film credits include Ugly Betty, Switched at Birth, Doom Patrol, You Don’t Mess with The Zohan and Connie and Carla. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband Jamison and Son Zion.

The Virtual Pride Parade will launch Pride Month and benefit THE LAVENDER EFFECT’s mission to Advance the Future of LGBTQ+ Heritage & Culture. While many local Pride celebrations again are being canceled or modified this year due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, many members of the community will not be able to gather in person, so this live virtual event will safely bring the LGBTQ+ community together from across the nation to celebrate Pride.

This year marks the 51st Anniversary of the first PRIDE marches across the nation in June 1970, commemorating the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, and protesting for LGBTQ+ equality.

THE LAVENDER EFFECT has another stellar roster of some of the most well-known LGBTQ+ celebrities and allies, non-profits, and activists from around the globe, to help to bring the community together including:

• Lily Tomlin (Tony, Emmy and Grammy Winner; Grace & Frankie; 9 to 5)
• Betty Buckley (Tony Award winner for Cats, Eight is Enough)
• Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision; Bad Moms)
• Sally Kirkland (Golden Globe Winner for Anna)
• Alexandra Billings (Transparent)
• Bruce Vilanch (Emmy Winner; comedian writer/actor)
• Michael Musto (journalist)
• Jason Stuart (Smothered; comedian)
• Drew Droege (Heathers)
• Kay Sedia (AJ and the Queen; Chico’s Angels)
• Mel England (Best Day Ever)
• Charles Busch (Drama Desk Award-winning Playwright & Actor)
• City of West Hollywood
• Colors Youth Counseling
• Congregation Kol Ami
• Freedom to Marry
• Gay Elder Circle
• IMRU Radio
• LA LGBT Center
• PFLAG LA
• PFLAG National
• Project Angel Food
• Project 10 & Friends of Project 10

Last year, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, THE LAVENDER EFFECT hosted the first “Virtual Pride Parade” to celebrate Pride and bring the LGBTQ+ community together. The live fundraising event featured celebrities, national LGBTQ+ organizations and politicians and over 10,000 viewed from around the country.

“As the LGBTQ+ community comes together for PRIDE again this year, we continue to find ourselves in a new normal. Once again, PRIDE will be celebrated safely throughout the country this year. We wanted to continue our outreach to everyone with our 2nd Virtual PRIDE Parade online this year.” said Andy Sacher, Founder & Executive Director of THE LAVENDER EFFECT. He continued “We celebrate our LGBTQ+ PRIDE with our diverse sisters & brothers in a way that everyone can join, no matter where they are or how they express their PRIDE!”

THE LAVENDER EFFECT is a nonprofit project of Community Partners that is advancing the future of LGBTQ Heritage & Culture. The organization helps to reduce shame, combat homophobia, and empower LGBTQ+ youth through programs like the Virtual Pride Parade, Oral History Projects, and educational programs. For more information, please visit http://www.TheLavenderEffect.org.

The post Bruce Vilanch, Lily Tomlin, Betty Buckley Judith Light, And More Celebrate Virtual Pride Sunday, May 30, 2021 first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Los Angeles Times
The Lavender Effect Live Virtual Pride Parade
By MATT COOPER
MAY 30, 2020

The stars come out to kick off LGBTQ Pride Month a day early with this virtual celebration hosted by “Transparent” actress and activist Alexandra Billings. With appearances by Lily Tomlin, Judith Light, Sean Hayes, Audra McDonald, Betty Buckley, Sandra Bernhard, Kathryn Hahn and Bruce Vilanch, plus performances from the Fruitcake Follies and the Windy City Gay Men’s Chorus. Noon to 2 p.m. Sunday. Free. facebook.com/TheLavenderEffect/

The post Stars Like Bruce Vilanch, Lily Tomlin, & Judith Light Kick-Off LGBTQ Pride Month Sunday, May 31, 2020, Virtually first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Hollywood Reporter
Vilanch Will Kick Things Off May 22, 2019 With A Reading Of The Play “Dear Harvey” About Harvey Milk
By Seth Abramovitch
May 21, 2019

The Emmy-winning comedy writer and La La Land’s unofficial gay mascot kicks off a summer of free love with a live reading of “Dear Harvey,” a documentary-style play about Harvey Milk staged at WeHo’s City Council Chambers.

The City of West Hollywood is supersizing its LGBTQ Pride this year with 40 days of events and activities, culminating in the LA Pride Parade down Santa Monica Boulevard on June 9. To kick things off, a staged reading of Patricia Loughrey’s documentary-style play Dear Harvey — about Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official — will be held at WeHo City Council Chambers on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. It’s free to attend. Among the cast members are RuPaul’s Drag Race star Gia Gunn and Bruce Vilanch, the Emmy-winning comedy writer and La La Land’s unofficial gay mascot. The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Vilanch, who weighed in on those “hating” fundamentalists, the “adorable” Pete Buttigieg and the one celebrity he calls “the Statue of Liberty for gay people.”

Hello, Bruce! Happy Gay Pride season.

It’s starting earlier than ever.

What do you have in store this year?

I’m just doing the thing on Wednesday night at the West Hollywood City Council Chambers. We’re reading a play called Dear Harvey, which is the history of Harvey Milk, and it is mostly an oral history. His story is very compelling, obviously. I mean, Sean Penn won an Oscar for playing his story, so it’s a great history lesson.

It’s a nice way to kick off the whole Pride thing to remind people of the more recent history that eventually led to where we are now, with marriage equality and fighting the last bigots on the earth, the religious ones.

Just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in, or something.

Yeah, well, that’s the nature of religion. It’s like the world’s oldest profession. It’s always there and will never go away. It has to be dealt with. But when you look around you realize that it is the only voice left that is bleating in the wilderness and hating gay people. It’s only countries that are ruled by fundamentalists and fundamentalist factions elsewhere of religions that cause all this trouble, and I think a lot of that is surfacing again with the abortion argument.

They seem to have their sights set on overturning Roe v. Wade. Do you think the same-sex marriage ruling could be overturned as well?

I think that they probably have the same feelings about that, but Roe v. Wadeis more important to them. I mean, there are more women than there are gay people and they’ve been working on that one longer. It would be, I think, difficult to overturn marriage equality because, what is it? It’s become common and no one is getting hurt. With abortion, they frame it as surrogate murder as far as they’re concerned — and that’s powerful to people who don’t pay attention. So this is all lighthearted and fun.

You probably have a t-shirt for this occasion somewhere.

Yeah, or will be working on one. I mean, I’ll get those nuns with their darning needles. Get them started again. They make all my stuff.

What do you think of Pete Buttigieg?

I think he’s adorable. Actually aside from that, my own personal lusty feelings, I think he’s wonderful. He’s so smart and he has an answer for everything and it all makes sense and he also just doesn’t lose his cool. I mean, they come at him with all the usual stuff and he just kind of looks at them and says, “You’ve got to be kidding, let’s talk about what’s real,” and I love that.

Do you have other plans for this Pride season?

It’s tough for a gay icon because I have to go to lots of parades and wave and show up and remind people of the history of things. It’s just important to be out there. Visibility is the most important thing and that’s what Pride really is about. It’s about reminding people that the only way that we’ve secured our rights and the only way that we will maintain them is by being visible, and Pride is a physical manifestation of that.

You have been out there waving the rainbow flag a lot longer than most people.

Yeah, well, I’m a lot older than most people. But I have been from the beginning. I was never really in.

Over the years, did you find yourself trying to convince other people in show business to come out? 

I don’t know if I tried to convince them. I mean, I wanted to be there for them if they wanted to. I had always felt that what we didn’t need was a bunch of people who were terrified being forced out of the closet. Who needed to see another bitter, unhappy homosexual? So I would say if you feel that way stay in, and when you feel differently then come out when you’re ready to do it.

Have you seen Rocketman?

No, I haven’t. I’m looking forward to it.

Do you know Elton John?

I do and he had a rough time because when he first announced that he was bisexual back in the early ‘70s, he was dropped from a lot of radio stations and it was around the time that I forget the album, maybe Captain Fantastic[and the Brown Dirt Cowboy] came out. It was No. 1 and then suddenly it was off the charts because back then radio was how you got your songs played and a lot of those radio stations in smaller markets were run by people who were besieged by right-wingers and homophobes. And pastors of their churches say, “How can you play this guy’s music when he’s a sinner and all that?” And rather than fight that they just dropped his records, so he felt the brunt of all of that and that’s when he was forced into that marriage, which convinced nobody.

But he kind of weathered the storm because he was Elton John and eventually, I mean, he became like the Statue of Liberty for gay people. I mean, he’s a symbol. I mean, he’s a Knight, for Christ’s sake! He sang at the Princess of Wales’ funeral and he runs a foundation for AIDS services and things like that. So he has obviously rebounded and he’s sort of symbolic of what happened. And that’s a great story.

The post Bruce Vilanch: This Pride Season, Be Prouder, Outer and Gayer Than Ever first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

NEW YORK, March 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Stoli® Group USA, LLC in partnership with the Key West Business Guild, is returning to New York to kick off the world’s largest annual LGBTQ bartending competition, the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic. Now in its fourth year, the competition will feature more contestants, participating cities and charitable donations than ever before.

In addition to recognizing the talents of the industry’s top LGBTQ bartenders, the Cocktail Classic celebrates the role that gay bars have played in the movement towards equality as original community centers. The competition will culminate in Key West, FL, a diverse and accepting city with a thriving LGBTQ community.

The world’s largest annual LGBTQ cocktail competition, The Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic, returns for its fourth year, showcasing the creativity and talent of mixologists and bartenders in the LGBTQ community. Seventeen regional finalists will compete for the 2017 Cocktail Classic Champion title at the Grand Finale during Key West Pride 2017.
The world’s largest annual LGBTQ cocktail competition, The Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic, returns for its fourth year, showcasing the creativity and talent of mixologists and bartenders in the LGBTQ community. Seventeen regional finalists will compete for the 2017 Cocktail Classic Champion title at the Grand Finale during Key West Pride 2017.
The Fourth Annual Key West Cocktail Classic finale is generously being hosted and judged by actor and musician, Jai Rodriguez, and past as well as returning celebrity judges include president of the Harvey Milk Foundation, Stuart Milk; writer and Emmy Award-winner, Bruce Vilanch; American Idol’s Latoya London; fashion designer and nightlife personality Andrew Christian; and Key West’s drag queen star, Sushi.

“Every year we look forward to bringing together the people, charities and business that make up our extraordinary LGBTQ community,” said Patrik Gallineaux, Stoli’s National LGBTQ Ambassador and Brand Manager. “While our mission is to recognize the most talented and innovative bartenders, community will always be at the heart of Cocktail Classic. It has been a privilege to support and grow together over the years.”

A maximum of six LGBTQ trade staff and/or allies from 17 cities across North America will be selected to create an original cocktail using Stoli Vodka as their primary ingredient. A panel of judges and 100 eligible audience members will evaluate each cocktail based on taste, balance and presentation, as well as each bartender’s authenticity, knowledge, and creativity in presentation and performance.

The finalist from each regional competition will win a six-day, all-inclusive trip to participate in a week of events and celebratory entertainment culminating in the grand finale during Key West Pride 2017. In addition to being named the 2017 Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic Champion, the winner of the final event will ride in the Key West Pride Parade as Honorary Grand Marshall and receive:

$12,500 grand prize for a pre-selected charity of his/her choice;
a victory celebration and charity check presentation at champion’s home bar hosted by Stoli Vodka;
and an all-expense paid exclusive Stoli Vodka destination event
The first runner up to the 2017 Champion will also receive $2,500 for their chosen charity.

“Stoli’s work through the Key West Cocktail Classic is an example of how companies can use their resources to make a difference both large and small,” stated Matt Hon, Executive Director of the Key West Business Guild. “From the charitable monetary donations to general awareness, the Cocktail Classic has significantly impacted our local community by becoming a destination event for the city of Key West. In 2016, we saw tourism and revenue increase by 20-percent on the island during Pride!”

The 2017 Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic Tour Schedule:

Kick Off: New York, NY: Boxers – March 1
Dallas, TX: Round-Up Saloon – March 6
San Diego, CA: Rich’s – March 22
Los Angeles, CA: The Abbey – March 25
Denver, CO: Hamburger Mary’s – March 27
Atlanta, GA: Swinging Richards – March 30
Miami, FL: Score – April 5
New Orleans, LA: Oz – April 12
Philadelphia, PA: Franky Bradley’s – April 18
Washington, D.C.: Nellie’s Sports Bar – April 24
Chicago, IL: Sidetrack – April 26
Dayton, OH: MJ’s on Jefferson – May 1
Boston, MA: Club Cafe – May 4
Toronto, ON: Gladstone Hotel – May 11
Portland, OR: CC Slaughters – May 16
Vancouver, BC: Numbers Cabaret – May 18
Northern California (San Francisco): Club 21 – May 22
Finale: Key West, FL: Bourbon St. Pub– June 10
Last year’s Champion, Rocky Collins from the Round-Up in Dallas proudly competed for DIFFA/Dallas and which raises funds for organizations that support education programs, treatment and direct care services for people living with or impacted by HIV and AIDS. Rocky also won a matching $5,000 donation to the Wesley House Family Services in Key West, an organization he represented on behalf of the Key West Business Guild. Rocky’s winning cocktail and presentation best embodied the spirit of the Key West community and the heart of the competition. Named ‘The Key West Kitty Kat,’ Rocky’s original Stoli cocktail is made with 2 oz. Stoli Vanil, 2 oz. coconut simple syrup, 1.5 oz. pineapple juice, 0.5 oz. key lime juice, coconut cream, grenadine, cinnamon and garnished with a pineapple slice and served over ice.

For more information about the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic including how to apply, rules, guidelines and the full schedule of events, visit http://www.out.com/keywestcocktailclassic.

About Key West Business Guild
The mission of the Key West Business Guild is to promote LGBTQ travel to Key West through marketing and the promotion of specialty events; to support gay-owned, gay-managed, and gay-friendly businesses; to strengthen the Gay community’s position within the local community by supporting relevant LGBTQ issues. The KWBG was founded in 1978 by 8 local gay business owners and has grown to approximately 400 members, which work together to continue efforts to brighten the rainbow over the island, an island now known as Gay Key West. Promotion of events, such as Key West Pride, Tropical Heat and Womenfest, has made Key West a year-round LGBTQ travel destination. For more information visit www.kwbgonline.org.

About Stoli Group, USA
Stoli Group USA, LLC is a U.S. importer and marketer of alcoholic beverages, headquartered in New York City. Stoli Group USA is a subsidiary of SPI Group based out of Luxemburg, one of the world’s most dynamic wine and spirits organizations. Formed in 2013, Stoli Group USA’s current portfolio of brands includes the Stolichnaya® brand of premium vodkas and Stoli Ginger Beer, ultra-premium elit®Vodka, Louisiana-distilled Bayou® Rum, artfully designed KAH® Tequila, Achaval-Ferrer from Argentina, and Arinzano wines of Spain.

Media Contact:
Patrick Rizzuto
Golin for Stoli Group, USA
T. +1 212.373.6015
PRizzuto@golin.com

The post Stoli® Vodka Honors the Legacy of LGBTQ Bartenders in the Movement for Equality, Kicks Off Fourth Annual Key West Cocktail Classic Competition first appeared on We Got Bruce!.