 And Charles? I'm Linda Quinlan. I'm Keith Ghostland. And this is All Things LGBTQ. And we are taping on Tuesday, July 16. Sit back, relax, because Ann's got news for you. I do. Headlines. Yes, these are my headlines. I have pride news from Tbilisi, Georgia, Cologne, Germany, and Madrid, Spain. I have sad stories about violence in Honduras and El Salvador. I'd like to talk about backlash in Poland, a little backlash from Botswana, which is going to appeal the ruling decriminalizing homosexuality that I talked about last time. The Indian High Court dismisses a plea for gay marriage. So these are all kind of steps backward, backlash, and other retrogression. I have election news from Bogota and Tunisia. The Israeli Education Minister, Rafi Peretz, says that conversion therapy works. And as a result, hundreds have protested in Tel Aviv. Rapper Nicki Minaj pulls out of controversial Saudi Arabia concert, good for her. And Alan Turing, to appear on the 50-pound note. And I have a picture of him. We all recall that he was the founder of computer science. Many people say broke the code in World War II. There was a movie. Yes. He was discriminated against as a gay person and finally committed suicide. So he's finally being memorialized in the monetary system of the UK. Those are my headlines. Well, that doesn't do him any good now, does it? I have a question. You say, I wonder if people in other countries who are doing LGBTQ reporting go and in the US? There's 45. And let me tell you what idiot thing he did today. I know it. I know it. I know. Especially around LGBTQ stuff. Oh, all right. OK. Anyway. But that's what you're about to tell us. Yes. What's going on in the US? Well, there's a lot going on in the US. Please tell us. At 27, this is good news. Alison Freeman is the first lesbian elected as a state senator from Oklahoma. I was just thinking when we were talking about Oklahoma. A boy who killed his brother in Greensboro, Pennsylvania was convicted of third-degree murder and he killed him because he thought he was gay. Gay former state official wins $1.5 million in discrimination case against former governor of Iowa, Terry Brasted, who is now, believe it or not, Trump's ambassador to China. Anti-gay vandalism, a die-in protest in Oklahoma. I'm going to tell a little bit about a Native American there. Cop who marked LBGT people after a teen suicide. There's a new video game, I thought this was kind of interesting, that lets you defeat Trump or Putin with a pride parade dance off. I have a picture of that, which I will show you. Players can march in pride parades in 16 different cities, battling it out with bigots along the route. It's called Pride Run, so that was pretty good. As long as Putin keeps his shirt on. Yes. And horseback riding with his shirt off. I have some real-life versions of that particular video. So we'll have more news. Transgender actor Miles McKenna and his controversy with the Trevor Project. So on to you. I hadn't heard about the difficulties for the Trevor. I'll be interested. So following on Ann's Pride theme, we're going to spend a little time in Hamilton, Ontario and look at the difficulties they encountered with their Pride Festival. And then a question about, is this indicative of things we might be seeing more of? I just want to talk a bit about, for my driver's licenses, people have encountered some difficulties they had not anticipated. Maine. Remember Maine has that process where you can basically put anything out for a referendum vote? Well, they have a process called People's Veto. And this week, 12 of them were filed. And we'll talk about a couple of them. And then what it would take for them to actually pass. And then we're going to talk a bit about just Vermont. Are we being trolled? Or is Vermont really being targeted? And I'm hearing of people getting vitriolic messages from international sources. We're even getting some. The award-winning. And we're going to talk a little bit about Drag Queen Story Hour. Some celebrities might have been in attendance. And the Medicaid division's public comment section about gender affirmation procedures. I'm going to talk a little bit about the National Guard and what some other sites may be doing. And then on the last show, Anne asked me a question about, if I wanted to see slingbacks in syrup, documentary The House of LeMay, how might I do it? Well, apparently for $0.99, you can rent it on Amazon Prime. Really? Yeah. All right. Now, a couple of events coming up. Pride Theater at the Chandler and Randolph. You'll hear much more details about that during Anne's scintillating interview. And so we know might be in it. That's right. And I'm told that there might be some celebrities facilitating the post-production conversations on four of the six evenings. Also keep in mind Larkson Raven, Contrafee Dancing, Capital Grange, 1st, 3rd, and 5th, Sciatter Days of the Month. And then the Out in the Open Summit, which is Green Mountain Crossroads, Dumerson, Vermont, that will be at the end of September. And this week's trivia question, they didn't get it. This past weekend, Maine had rallies commemorating the 35th anniversary of what? OK. Well, let's go to Pride in Tbilisi, Georgia, which has been a site of contestation. A small group of LGBT plus campaigners held a rally in the Georgian capital weeks after they were forced to call off a march following a wave of political unrest. Organizers said several dozen campaigners held a half an hour gathering in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs after being forced to change plans due to fear of reprisals from the far right. The march was initially planned for several weeks ago, but was canceled at the 11th hour after a wave of political unrest led to violent clashes between police and protesters. Organizers had also faced threats from extreme right-wing groups and opposition from the influential Orthodox Church. While the government had warned against the march going ahead, saying participants' safety could not be guaranteed, the influential Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate had urged the government to ban the rally describing it as an unacceptable provocation aimed at promoting the sin of Sodom while far right groups threatened to form vigilante groups to stop it. Yet they convened anyway for a half an hour, so profiles encouraged there. Cologne celebrates Germany's largest LGBT pride parade, more than a million members of the community and their allies flock to Cologne to take part in one of Europe's largest pride parades. The attendance for this year's Christopher Street Day parade, which is what they call it in Europe, which Marx says, we know the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York, was like last year's, which saw 1.2 million people take part. In contrast to other pride parades in Germany, organizers in Cologne have made their event a political demonstration, purposefully limiting the size of the floats to maintain its protest atmosphere. This is what we've been talking about all around the world, including here in the US. In Germany, even if a lesbian couple is married, only the woman who gives birth is recognized as the child's mother. The other partner has to adopt in order to be given the same parental rights. So things aren't good in Germany. And in fact, there's a right wing party called the AFD, Alternative for Germany, which has made gains in recent German elections. The party has called for an end to marriage equality and pushed to borrow broader sexuality discussions from German classrooms. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and intersex people are increasingly targets of violence in Germany with homophobic attacks increasing by as much as 30%. This year's motto of many together, strong, reminds us that we have fought for a lot and also that we will not back down in the future against neo-Nazis and their friendly right wing populists in the German and European parliaments, an organizer said. Madrid Pride takes a stand against far right. Their motto was not one step back. The parade saw one of the most politically charged gay pride parades in recent years. Hundreds of thousands of people rallied under the message, not one step back. In protest of the far right group, Vox, which is seeking to roll back LGBT rights. According to the organizers, 1.6 million people attended the annual march. These are huge turnouts. This year, the parade, the climax of the Madrid Pride celebrations was led like in New York by the first generation of LGBTQIA activists to honor the trailblazers who won greater rights for the community under Spanish, the Spanish dictatorship of Francesco Franco. But the right wing popular party and center right, C.U. Darnanos, which means citizens, were barred from joining the parade over their dealings with Vox. But they marched anyway and were jeered and people threw bottles at them. Vox doesn't want the rainbow pride being flown over the Madrid City Hall. They're quite deplorable. In fact, a Vox deputy in the Madrid region attacked gay pride for denigrating the dignity of people. They impregnate the center with an unhealthy and unbearable stench. Isn't that creepy? So they were marching, they were being jeered at and protesters of their presence dressed up like handmaids from the Handmaid's Tale. What's interesting is instead of calling it a novel, this report calls it a TV show. It's both. Where women are kept as sexual slaves. I have a picture before you of these protesters dressed up as characters from the Handmaid's Tale. In the end, this right wing group had to be escorted by the police to lead the event. After that, these two, a man and a woman were getting money out of the ATM machine. Two young men walked by and they were beaten up by the person getting the money from the ATM machine. He was yelling homophobic slurs and said they insulted the woman. So it's violent but they're fighting back in Madrid. Good. That's the end of my first segment. Okay. And go on to the United States. Okay. Anti-gay vandalism of Megan Ripenow's posters is possible hate crime. They were hanging in the Bryan Park subway station and were defaced with anti-gay and misogynist slurs. But not to be outdone, the religious right has found its own anti-LGBTQ player. Jaylene Hinkel refused to join the national soccer team because the team's pride jerseys conflicted with her faith. Yes. So. With her what? Faith. Faith. The jerseys had a rainbow flag on it because of her religious belief. Faith. Yes. I thought you were just saying faith. I hang on your every word. Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate it. There you are. Die-in protesters confront Alabama mayor who called for the killing of gays. Mark Chambers of Carbon Hill refuses to resign despite calls from activists and city council members. Protesters staged a die-in outside City Hall. The mayor Facebooked calling for the killing of LGBTQ people along with socialists and others. So. A black feminist helping to change the world. Trinicia Arza is advocating for social justice in Seattle and she is inspiring a whole generation there. She was born HIV positive to parents struggling with addiction. Arza, 28, keeps busy when not in college studying community health. And for five years she has worked for the Babes Network, a support program for women living with AIDS and HIV. So here's a picture of her. In Oklahoma, a disabled Native American is screaming. Deep in water identifies as bisexual and mixed race. She was a water protector at Standing Rock and is the founder and ex-director of crushing colonialists. An international indigenous multimedia collective that seeks to provide greater visibility and opportunity to traditionally oppressed indigenous people. And I have a picture of her. And I don't know if you remember the teenager in, let me see, where was this? He was killed and thrown over a bridge, I think. But the cop who marked him, LGBT people after the teen suicide is back on the streets. Jeff's grave, Jeff Graves, maybe. I'm not sure. Resigned after ridiculing the LGBTQ movement after Nigel Shelby's suicide. However, he has a new job with a different agency. No, it's Alabama. Oh. He now works for Owens Crossroads Police Department in Alabama. And his new police chief was happy to tell you that everybody deserves a second chance. And for my last story of this segment, out playwright Jeremy O'Hara is making Broadway history with Slay Play. It was really taken by storm when it was off-Broadway. What's the name of the play? It's called Slay Play. Slay Play, okay. And now, 30 Harris is about to make history as the youngest black man to have a play produced on Broadway, set on a plantation. It integrates the intersection of race and sexuality. The play is about three interracial couples. So that should be pretty interesting. Oh, yeah. You didn't see it on your recent tour? No, we didn't even know about it. I don't think it was there yet. I don't think it's open yet. No, I think it was off-Broadway, but we could have seen it. Off-Broadway? Yeah. You see a lot of off-Broadway. Yeah, I know it. I know, we missed it, so we'll have to look out for it. Okay. So what do you have going on? Well, I want to talk to you about your driver's licenses. Okay. I'm trusting you have one. I do. And I'm looking at you. As people, as we have tried to publicize as of July 1st, there is a non-binary third-gender option on your driver's license. People were encountering some difficulties. They were trying to change gender status online and they kept getting a message that you needed to come into the DMV to complete the process. And they saw it as a discriminatory action, which it could seem to be on the surface until you looked at exactly what was going to happen with the issuing of a new license. A new license in Vermont is going to have all of those enhanced security functions embedded into your driver's license. And for the security functionality is why you have to go into the DMV. Uh-huh. So what are you protected from by the security? It encrypts all the data so that it can't be hacked. It will serve the same as an official government ID for getting on airplanes trained, going across international borders, like going to Mexico, Canada, whatever, because it's going to have this enhanced security so it cannot be duplicated. So it's going to be harder for kids to get phoning IDs. Those days are gone. Your days are gone for you, Linda. So let's take a little trip to Hamilton, Ontario. Moscow-y? In a way, yes, because one of the things that happened is they were at their part at the end of the parade doing the festivities, counter demonstrators showed up. And what the people who had organized the Pride March tried to do was to unfurl this large black tarp that would separate the counter protesters from the Pride celebration itself. You wouldn't have to look at all their hateful messages. Well, as people have investigated this further, what they found out is there was an unusual coalition that formed around that demonstration. It was evangelicals from both Canada and the U.S. Oh, I'm not surprised, I was just going to guess that. Who created a bond with the yellow vests, which in Canada are people who are opposing immigration. French too, wasn't there yellow vests in France? No, yellow, that's an entirely different, that's about classism and people not being paid. But what's happening is all of those extreme right wing seem to be connecting with each other and they went in with the intent of not just shouting, they were looking for violence. They were really looking to create a physical confrontation. And when I read about it, what struck me was looking at the things that are happening here and how they keep escalating. And how social media is connecting all of those people. Are we going to start seeing more of this? I think if Trump doesn't get a lecture, we're going to see a lot of it. So, Maine. Well, can we pause? What about the involvement of the police? Oh, sorry, one of the things that happened also is as we've reported in the past, there has been a very difficult relationship between the LGBTQ communities in Canada, particularly in Toronto, but also in Hamilton with law enforcement. That law enforcement is not responsive, it does not really investigate, they're really dismissive. And one of the things in this incident in particular that was brought out was everyone was aware of what was building. People could see it happening beforehand on social media. They could see it building during the day and law enforcement didn't respond. Or when they did finally show up, it was after people had gotten hurt, it was after the conflict was much more advanced than it really had any reason to be. And when the city council was reviewing it, the LGBT community was asking for law enforcement to leave. And one person stood up and said, okay, but what if they're here to learn what it is they did wrong? And the response back was they need to reach out. They need to show that they understand where they're missing. And one of the things that's brought up is where is the LGBTQ liaison officer that should be embedded in law enforcement? Where is their commitment to training? Where is their commitment to outreach? Really quickly about Maine because Linda's conscious of timing she'll kick me under the table if I take too long. Maine, as I said, Maine has a process where you can basically put anything out for a referendum vote as long as you get the appropriate number of signatures on the petition. And it's 10% of those people who voted in the most recent governor's election. So for any petition happening now they need approximately 63,000 signatures. They filed 12 of what's called people's vetoes to try and stop the state of Maine from engaging in enacting a law, a policy, whatever. Four of them that have been targeted specifically is death with dignity, inclusive insurance coverage for women's reproductive procedures. They want to repeal a ban that had been put in place preventing the police from using racial profiling. And they want to repeal the ban on conversion therapy for minors. So they won't get it. And by Susan Collins. But they've got until the beginning of August to get everything into the Secretary of State who can verify that you are indeed a registered voter so that it gets on their November 5th ballot. But this is where Maine gets quirky. Doesn't have to be on the November 5th ballot. You could decide, oh, I need a little longer to get the 63,000. So I'll go for the March primary which is also the presidential primary which is a statewide and I can put my ballot initiative then or I could do it even later and the general primary. So this is our backyard in a lot of the political advocacy work that's been done in New England. Vermont has been close to or Maine and we have mirrored each other in our activism. So it's gonna be interesting to watch this. Well. She was getting ready to hit me actually. I was. A lot of bad news in this segment. Stop her now. Three transgender women have been killed in Honduras in one week. And I have a picture now of Bessie Ferrera who's on the left and Santiago Santi Carvajal who's on the right. They're both victims of transgender violence. Bessie Ferrera was a well-known HIV and transgender activist and the sister of Rihanna Ferrera the only transgender person to run in the country's 2017 elections. She was gunned down early Monday morning. She was with a group of transgender women when some men approached and shot at them. She was 40 years old. Another transgender woman present was also shot at the scene after which she was taken to the hospital. They were read report. The police have reportedly arrested two suspects in connection with the attack. But a lawyer for an LGBTQ human rights organization in Honduras said that Ferrera's case is indicative of the lack of protections for transgender women in the country. The human rights group worked with Bessie in 2008 when she issued a complaint after she was attacked by some police officers. She was beaten and almost killed. The case is still going on more than 10 years later. We've been pressuring prosecutors this human rights spokesperson said but there's still impunity and the complaints are not taken seriously. The second victim, a transgender television personality known for her commentary on LGBTQ issues was also killed this past weekend. Santiago, Santi Carvajal was shot by strangers Friday as she was walking with friends toward a television station. Her relatives told reporters that she died. She was 32, the host of La Galaxia de Santi, a critically acclaimed local magazine show that appeared on local television channels. She was a social media maven. Similar to Ferrera, Carvajal had received death threats before she was murdered. Her death marks the 78th murder of journalists and others working in media in Honduras since 2011. A third victim was shot in El Negrito on July 3rd. Antonio Lanes, 38, was a stylist. This week has been particularly tragic. Activists said although violence against trans people in Central America is continuous, we haven't seen this level of violence in the last year. Honduras, which we know along with El Salvador and Guatemala composes Central American so-called Northern Triangle. It's one of the deadliest countries in the world. Though the country's homicide rate has vastly decreased, it remains one of the highest with 40 people per 100,000 killed in 2018. This year to date, at least 21 LGBTQ people have been murdered in Honduras, nine gay men, seven trans people, and five lesbians. El Salvador police officers in another horrible story are charged with the murder of a transgender woman who was deported from the US. I have a picture now before you of Camelia Diaz-Cordova who was deported in 2017. Her friend told the Washington Blade that she was reported missing at the end of January. She was later found at a hospital with multiple injuries where she died in February. The police officers alleged that she was on drugs, which is not true, her friend told the Blade. She was not a person with problems. She kept to herself. She didn't even swear and she only drank at home. But to say that she was going to drink on the street, I don't believe it. She asked for asylum for obvious reasons because of violence against the LGBTQI Salvadorans and the government's reluctance to defend their rights. The US deported her in 2017, as I said. LGBTQ activists have reacted to the officers arrest positively even though the case will generate uncertainty. I think that this symbolizes a big advance in the issue of access to justice, which is one of the most tenuous issues for the LGBTI community in El Salvador, especially for trans women who have been targeted for murder and disappearances since the 1980s of the trans program director. Two more quick stories. Dozens of Polish communities say they're LGBTQ free. 30 villages, this is in response to Warsaw's pro-LGBT declaration. 30 of these towns have come out against it. Botswana, in a response to earlier ruling that homosexuality was decriminalized, the government is appealing. I have a picture now before you have two men kissing at the Pride in Calcutta, even as the Delhi High Court turned down a plea to recognize equal marriage and LGBT rights. Two more pictures and then I'll move on to our friends. I'd like to report that lesbian and trans women and lesbian in Columbia, Bogota to be precise, has a good chance of attaining election as mayor. Here's her picture, Claudia Lopez of the Green Alliance and one more person who's involved in electoral politics, Tunisian LGBT rights activists, sticking with his bid for the presidency. Here's here his picture, Munir Batur. He really doesn't have much of a chance but he's pursuing his agenda and trying to raise the profile of LGBT people in Tunisia. All right. That's it from me. Lot to cover, I wish I could. I know, we need three hours. Yeah. Bicentral Blanca Devon 17 was murdered in Utica, New York and her killer circulated a footage of the murder. They think that he might have been obsessed with her and maybe she wouldn't have anything to do with her, him, but they found her killer in his car where he apparently tried to kill himself but was unsuccessful. And this was an interesting story. Transgender actor Miles McKinnon was dead named at a panel led by the Trevor Project and VidCon. They organized a conference and McKinnon was on the panel. However, the moderator used McKinnon's dead name to talk about life before transition. When corrected by McKinnon, she replied that she didn't know that she wasn't supposed to say that. The moderator? Yes. For the Trevor Project? Yes, and VidCon, which is a like online, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, she replied that she didn't know that she wasn't supposed to say that. So McKinnon actually wanted to know who allowed someone that doesn't know how to address these issues, moderate an LGBTQ panel. Yes. There has been no apology from VidCon but the Trevor Project immediately messaged him saying how shocked they were that this had happened. But, you know, I don't know. What is VidCon? It's like an online video way of doing paneling. It's kind of like when you face time or something. I don't know what you're having. So, and Abel? Sidenio. Sugen should. Sidenio. Has been found guilty in the fatal stabbing of a classmate in the Bronx. You remember that story? He was defending himself, he says. He chose not to have a jury trial and just let the judge decide the case. However, for him, the judge said that he wasn't buying it, that it wasn't self-defense. And Abel said that he was just brought a knife because he was sick of being bullied and he thought it would scare them. He was bullied since kindergarten. Right. Right. And so now he faces up to 25 years of prison. He was charged with manslaughter, possession of a weapon, and a third charge. And he could get up to 25 years in Rikers. But there's an appeal in the works. Of course. But, you know, he'll be in Rikers until the appeal comes and that could be four or five years, who knows. So a very sad case for everybody involved. And one last quick story, and then we'll move on to Keith Dan Bayer, made history in 2011 when he helped craft Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's famous gay rights, or human rights speech. Now he's trying to make history again by becoming the first out gay man elected to the U.S. Senate. So from Colorado. Tammy Needs Company. Yeah. Yeah. So very quickly, National Guard. There are five states that the governors have said, we are not implementing the ban on transgender serving in the National Guard. In this California, New Mexico, Oregon, Nevada, and Washington. What is interesting about the National Guard is that even though they are under federal law, federal regulation, they're controlled by the governors. So from being in touch with some of the transgender support groups here in Vermont, there is no one who has approached asking for support saying they have not been allowed to serve, but we're waiting. And sort of moving in that same direction, one of the things they said about Vermont are people trolling us. Have we become the real target? Looking at Drag Queen Story Hour, and I brought some pictures for Zach to show with you, the Kellogg Library had been deluged with vitriolic hate messages. The mummy. The mummy through social network. Not M-N, not M-U-M-O. But what seemed to have happened, and I think I said this on our last show, they started with the Kellogg Library. And then the Department of Financial Regulation put out a thing to the insurance industry saying you need to cover gender affirmation procedures. You need to cover what is ever on the formulary and you cannot discriminate against minors. That if they meet the medical necessity and have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, they are entitled to affirmation procedures that are appropriate for their age and there is a best practices model. And there was a public hearing, a public comment section, excuse me, conducted by the Medicaid division. They got slammed the same as the Kellogg Library. They got over a hundred vitriolic emails and less than a week. I mean, really hateful. And what happened with the Kellogg Library and the Medicaid people is they reached out to Vermont law enforcement saying I just wanted to let you know what's happening here. And with the Kellogg Library and we saw it by attending Drag Queen Story Hour, the Montpelier police casually came in, walked around, talked with a few people, looked at what was occurring in the event and then they moved out of the way. The public comment section, there was a law enforcement officer who stayed in the testimony room for the entire testimony. And they were security who just sort of casually walked in the entryways outside. And in both cases, lots of nasty messaging, lots of threat. The public comment, there were 15 of us who testified. We were all testifying in support of expanding and being changes for what's covering. So all of the pro people were there. There were no counter demonstrations at Drag Queen Story Hour. And with that... Were you in trivia? Oh, the interview. The interview. No, you might have noticed that we have accessories. And if you watch Anne's interview with the Pride Theater at the Chandler, you might find out what these hats are all about. Hello, I'm here with the crew of the Chandler Pride Festival, crew in the sense of actors and the committee that organizes it. And they're here to tell us about their annual festival. We have here Bennett Law, Susan Loind and Andra Kisler. And you have a great lineup for us, would you mind telling us a little bit about it? Starting, say, with the first play. A very interesting creative idea. Right, I think standing in this place was precipitated by one of our crew members last year saying how frustrating they found it that we brought in play sometimes that didn't really reflect a local experience. Sometimes they had urban settings or something of that nature. And so they recommended that we actually invest in producing a play about Vermonters. And we did just that. We hired a playwright to come in and interview 18 folks that grew up LGBTQ in central Vermont. And from those interviews crafted a theater piece that's amazing, it's powerful. I mean, I was in tears reading the script and I thought, yeah, yeah, I wait till this hits the stage. So it's really powerful. Most of those 18 people are portraying themselves on stage. So they're actually coming out and telling their own stories. So it's very specific to the Vermont experience and what it was like for a number of different generations because there are people well into their, I'm sure close to 70 or pushing 70 and people as young as early 20s in this. So from a different generational perspectives talking about what it was like for them to grow up LGBTQ in Vermont. And one of our co-hosts on the show is going to appear. That's exactly right. And that's going to be on the 26th of July and the 3rd of August at 7.30. So that opens the festival on Friday, the 26th. It's the first production right at 7.30. And then we'll replay the next weekend on Saturday night. And that's going to have a talk back. One thing I love about your productions is that you have talk backs. Yes, all three of the productions will have talk backs following where the cast, the director, the committee members, everybody, the audience all comes together to talk about what they've seen and reflect on what it means for them. And sometimes the challenges it took to bring that piece of theater to life. How long did the talk backs last? Is it very? I would say it varies. It's five or 10 minutes. If the audience is engaged, we let it go a little bit longer and then we have a reception with snacks afterwards. Oh, very nice. So the conversation can spill over and become more informal after the time is up in the theater. Right, and then venue for the conversation is next door. Yep, in the gallery. Yeah, it's great. Great. And there's generally a moderator for each of the talk backs. So someone to kind of get things going. Great. The other thing I really like about the growing up LGBTQ is they've set some of the stories against the backdrop of the Civil Union, Freedom to Marry task force and the things that were going on politically at that time. So it makes a really interesting backdrop. So you have people telling their personal stories, but there's also some historical perspective going on between kind of behind the scenes and in front of the scenes as the show unfolds. So I found that really interesting and hopefully will be informative and educational for folks that may not know much about the struggle. Are any of you native Vermonters? Sorry. Keith is the standalone. That's why I'm not one of the 15 on the stage. Let's move to Altogether Now. What can you tell us about that? Boy at the door comedy. This will be interesting. It's being directed by a gentleman from White River Junction named Jarvis Green. I've gone to the Jagfest. That's right. I love his work. Okay. You'll love this. Yeah. So the original script was sent to me by a man who both Susan and I have worked with in the past at Valley Players. He lives down in Florida and he was in a production of Altogether Now down in Boca and sent it to me and connected me with the playwright who sent me things about the script and I brought it up to the committee and we read the script and thought it was a good story and it would be a lot of fun to do. And I'm excited. I think it was two years ago, perhaps, that we started talking about this and we're a year and a half ago. So that's fun. It's a light-hearted piece with some twists. So it sounds like the first play is tragic comic or funny and notch and this is a comedy and what about the third play? A late show. A late show. A dramedy. It's a dramedy. It's a dramedy. They're a romantic dramedy. It's a rom comedy, yes. It's got elements, I think, that are quite funny and the more you immerse yourself in the script, you find these little nuggets, these gems, these one-liners, right? But really it's a bunch of women that end up getting trapped in a cabin together and chaos ensues because you have exes and current lovers and prospective future lovers and some jealousies and different people kind of jockeying for position, revolving around the central character. So there are some light-hearted moments but there's also some tough subject matter. People's past not always being pretty or attractive to look at. Jane Chambers is sort of a staple of lesbian comedy. I don't think she's still alive. No, she's not any longer. She died young though, didn't she? Yep. And she wrote Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, which we did in our fourth year. Your end. I was in that as well, yeah. And we saw that in Northampton in the early 80s. And so I guess we should back up and say altogether now is gonna be on the 27th of July and the 4th of August. Saturday, the first weekend and Sunday, the second. That's right. Very good. That helps contextualize and elate snow on Sunday the 28th. The first Sunday, that's right. And then Friday. Friday, the second of August. I ask you every, this is your third year joining us, which has been a great pleasure and honor for us. Every year I ask you how you happen to choose the plays. You mentioned a little about suggesting altogether now to the committee. And then elates, well, we've actually talked about two of them already. Talked about how growing up LGBTQ in Vermont got started. And then elate snow, after we had done Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, I had done a little bit more research about Jane Chambers' work. I'd read some of her other scripts and I brought elate snow to the committee right after we did Last Summer at Bluefish Cove. And it just seemed too soon to do another piece, but it's classic and it's a story that can be out there. And it's fun to do her work. I also think it's intriguing because it was written in the late 60s, early 70s, but it's very relevant. There are themes that are still very relevant. There are parts where you say, wow, we've really come a long way since that. And I feel like we have to put right in the playbill. This is, the script is old, but the feelings are not. Some of the themes are very universal. So that's another piece that I think is really fun discovering that as we go through the script that there are these universal moments, regardless of when a play was written, that I think will appeal to folks in the audience. Just the costumes are hard. Oh, but they're not too, but we don't know yet. Tell us a little, if you would, about the auxiliary activities that are occurring in the festival. Benefits showing of Brokeback Mountain? Sure. So the Wednesday evening between the weekends, the plays run Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and on two consecutive weekends. And the Wednesday between, we will be doing a showing of Brokeback Mountain, the Oscar-winning film. The Chandler Center for the Arts put in a big movie screen that covers their huge stage. So last year, we showed Philadelphia. It was an anniversary showing of that film. And this year, we've selected Brokeback Mountain. Yep, so that happens. And at the same time, Andra, you might speak about John Krause's work that's in the lower gallery. John is my former husband's husband. That's a modern, wow. And I asked John, he's an amazing artist. He's really quite incredible. He and my ex-husband live in Princeton, New Jersey. And a few years ago, I'd contacted him to see if he would like to be a part of the festival. And at the time, it was just too inconvenient for him to get his canvases up here. Many of them are quite large. But in the last year, my daughter bought a house and John came up with a van, with a whole load of art for her home. And when I contacted him again this year, he said, sure, the things are already there. So some have been taken out of Ari's house as of this morning to be hung in the downstairs gallery at Chandler and two of the large pieces. We just need to find a vehicle to hold them. But he's very inspired by Hopper. People who come down and see the work will recognize that. And they'll be on display for the entire festival. Yeah, I think starting this Friday. Much of the month, yeah, so run for about a month. Well, you may admire the cap I'm wearing. It's a gift from the gay and lesbian fund of Vermont. So let's chat for a moment about sponsors if we could. Right, so the sponsors of the Pride Festival at Chandler include the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Vermont. The fund has been the primary sponsor throughout the history, the nine-year history of the festival. Samara is a sponsor. There are a number of media sponsors, including VPR, The Point. Calypso? Yeah, Calypso, yes. It's wonderful. Have benefited from other sponsors at different times, different years, single-year sponsors. I remember the Anne Frey Trust at one point was a sponsor and others. So it's been, it's the only way to make this festival possible is to have support from foundations and donors like that to really help defray the costs. So you spend a lot of time fundraising then, is that? Yeah, a fair amount of time. We do a benefit in the spring. This year we made chicken pot pie and all kinds of dessert pies and had some fun with that. Pie and pie, two of my favorite things. Lots of pie. Last year we did fried chicken. So we were focused on growing up LGBTQ in Vermont and thought what was it like in Vermont to grow up here and who doesn't remember the chicken pie suppers at the local churches. So we tried to model one of those as our fundraiser. And it worked out great, it was very fun. It was a really nice evening. So we do that, but a lot of the support comes in from groups like the Gay and Lesbian Fund of Vermont and Samara and others. How many people on the committee? The three of you and how are you others? And three others. Three others and you're all volunteers and you've been doing it for several years. Andra and I since the start, right? So nine years for us and Susan, this is your third or fourth year. Well, we have some pictures now we'd like to show you of rehearsal for standing in this place. And can you tell us a little about how that works? None of you is in it, but I'm sure you've gone to rehearsals, people do readings and has it changed during the course of the preparation? Well, I got a revision of the script about a week ago. So I think they have made some slight changes. Yeah, it was a commission for us. And so the script continues to evolve. And I know that in some cases, I was speaking to one of the cast members today who said, I have a scene where I understand the scene, I understand what we're trying to convey, but the words don't work for me. So they were gonna get together and try to practice different ways of working with that or seeing what some minor changes might make to make it flow more easily for them. So yeah, I think it continues to be a work of exploration. They're coming together, it's extraordinarily personal and profound and people are really sharing significant moments of their lives and some of those moments are recreated. Some of it is storytelling and some of it is they actually recreate key moments in individuals' lives and other cast members will come in to play a parent or someone else. Yeah, so it's a very fluid piece, it's very powerful. So it's continually progressing up until opening night and then maybe even after that you can revise. That's what living theater, wouldn't you say? I think it's similar to when we had done Farm Boys. I remember that production. Did that also evolve? Very much, it started out with like a four-hour script. Yeah, that was another commission we did. We had someone write a new script from the book Farm Boys and because there was an existing script but we got authorization to write a new script. And yeah, it continued to be edited and revised and moved around and things like that right up pretty much until it was presented. And the sets are kind of minimal I recall from Farm Boys that were, you know, and is it the same with standing in this place, minimal sets? Yeah, I believe so, they have a big, I think they're gonna have a big screen where they're projecting films and still photos of key moments in history during the Civil Rights. Okay, well friends, thank you for coming in. We look forward to seeing the plays and I hope you'll come in again soon to tell us your progress through the year. Good, love to. Thank you so much, thanks for having us. Thank you. That was a good interview. It was nice to have you come in. They come back, this is their third year. And Bennett, I think Bennett and Becca are our two top guests for a number of visits. We gotta get to trivia. Yes, we do. Maine, 35 years ago. Charles Howard, who was 23, might have been leaving a Unitarian Church potluck. Charles Howard may have been a very out gay man and he may have been experiencing bullying for most of his life. And he was stalked by three teenage boys who when they reached the bridge, despite his pleas that he couldn't swim they threw him over the bridge and he drowned. The three teenagers were charged with murder that was then reduced to manslaughter because they were minors and their conviction didn't matter really because they were released when they were 21. So. Oh, on that note. In two weeks, we'll be back again. And in the interim, Linda says, resist.