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The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgendered — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgendered people.

We live in times more sensitive than ever to hatred based violence, especially since the events of September 11th. Yet even now, the deaths of those based on anti-transgender hatred or prejudice are largely ignored. Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. This trend shows no sign of abating.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgendered people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgendered people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On Tuesday, October 14th, nationally recognized marriage expert, Prof. Stephanie Coontz will be a guest speaker at a public forum entitled “What is a ‘Real’ Marriage?  And Who Gets to Decide?” at 7:00 pm in the Theater Building, Olympic College Bremerton campus.  The forum is free and sponsored by the Kitsap County Council for Human Rights and Olympic College Multicultural Services.

Professor Coontz will explore the surprising variations in how marriage has been defined at different points in history and demonstrate how the purpose and functions of marriage have changed over time, gradually stimulating new groups to demand the right to marry. We sometimes think that marriage has only recently become a political issue, but in fact, she’ll show, marriage was a politicized institution from the beginning. There have always been sharp conflicts over who should be allowed to marry and how marriage should be defined. From the so-called “love” story of Anthony and Cleopatra, to the fights between church and state in the Middle Ages, to the 20th-century battles over interracial and same-sex marriage, societies have fought over which social institutions or individuals should have the right to decide whether a marriage is valid.
 
About Stephanie Coontz
Stephanie Coontz teaches history and family studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and is Director of Research and Public Education for the Council on Contemporary Families, which she chaired from 2001-04. She is the author of Marriage, A History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage , (Viking Press, 2005), The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (1992 and 2000, Basic Books), The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America’s Changing Families (Basic Books, 1997), and The Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families . She also edited American Families: A Multicultural Reader (Routledge, 1999). Her work has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Norwegian, and Japanese.
 
Coontz has testified about her research before the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families in Washington, DC, and addressed audiences across America, Japan and Europe. She has appeared on the Today Show, Oprah Winfrey, Crossfire, NPR, CNN’s Talk Back Live, CBS This Morning, Leeza, and MSNBC with Brian Williams, as well as in several prime-time television documentaries, including ones hosted by Walter Cronkite and Barbara Walters. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Observer/Guardian, The Times of London, Wall Street Journal, Salon, Washington Post, Newsweek, Harper’s, Vogue, LIFE, Time-LIFE Books, and Mirabella, as well as in such academic and professional journals as Family Therapy Magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education, National Forum, and Journal of Marriage and Family.
 
A former Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Coontz has also taught at Kobe University in Japan and the University of Hawaii at Hilo. In 2004, she received the Council on Contemporary Families first-ever “Visionary Leadership” Award. In 1995 she received the Dale Richmond Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for her “outstanding contributions to the field of child development.” She also received the 2001-02 “Friend of the Family” award from the Illinois Council on Family Relations. She serves as a marriage consultant to The Ladies Home Journal.
Copies of recent articles and other activities are available at www.stephaniecoontz.com

Kitsap Pride is at Bremerton’s Evergreen Park located where Pacific Avenue meets 13th Street and Sheldon Avenue.

The park is not far from downtown Bremerton on the Washington Narrows between the Warren Avenue Bridge and the Manette Bridge.

View Kitsap Pride in a larger map

There are many places to park in the area including lots of on-street parking with fairly short walks. We encourage you to ride with friends.  The lot a 13th and Sheldon will be reserved for vehicles of people with disabilities and loading in/out musicians.

Do not park in the spaces reserved for the boat ramp.  If parking seems tight look south of 11th only 2 blocks away.

Join the fun at Kitsap County’s Pride Celebration on Saturday July 19, 2008. Festivities are being held at Evergreen Park in Bremerton, from noon to 5PM. The Kitsap Pride Network organizes the annual event for the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and ally community, and the 2008 planning committee has been working hard to put together an event that exceeds expectations and showcases the talent and supporters in and around our community. Bring family & friends and be ready to enjoy a fabulous day at the park.

Although Kitsap Pride is being held in the same beautiful location, this year several great new features have been added, thanks to suggestions from previous year’s participants. This year change is good. We’ve added an area for families with children to come and enjoy. There is a covered picnic area for eating, gathering to socialize or just people watching. If you want to be closer to the action there will also be tables nearer the stage, or you can bring a blanket or stadium chairs and make your own viewing area. Don’t forget the Frisbees!

ALL FAMILIES MATTER:  We’re really excited this year to be having a “Kid’s Zone”, hosted by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Bremerton. We’ll have balloons, crafts, sidewalk chalk, face painting, plus Corky the Clown will be back with Clancy the Wonderdog. The “Kid’s Zone” will start at noon and go to 2:30pm so bring the kids! You could even bring a picnic lunch! We look forward to seeing you! Children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

We’ve not just added activities for the little ones. The Kitsap Safe Schools Network is sponsoring a Teen Space that will be hosted by The Q Center. The Q is a local drop in center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and allied youth from 14 to 19 years old. They’ll have a special space to hang out with friends and meet new ones. The Q Center will organize some special fun stuff.

Non-stop entertainment from the stage, sponsored by Red Star Events, will include drag kings (Tacoma’s Royal Knights) and queens (Faces Drag Show from VIBE in Kent), live music from local favorite Inga Nova and the heavy soul and funk sounds of the Kim Archer Band. The Kim Archer Band often plays Tacoma Pride, Bite of Seattle and other local events and venues. We are hoping to have some great queer slam poetry to end the day performed by Bent, Seattle’s Queer Writing Institute. Plus, we will have some special guest speakers. Go to our website (kitsappride.org) to keep up on the schedule. The stage will be in a great new location with plenty of lawn to spread out on and take in the show. Look for the giant rainbow roof to find the Red Star stage!

This year we’re proud to announce several new sponsors, including Pure Med Spa, Ameriprise Financial, the Slaughter County Roller Vixens, and Clear Creek Psychological. Plus our Community Partner organizations the Kitsap County HIV AIDS Foundation, Kitsap PFLAG, Kitsap Safe Schools Network, Positive Solutions, The Q Center and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The Vixens will be showing off their skills and selling cotton candy and sno-cones.

Our vendor marketplace should be a bustling avenue of GLBT Support & Education Information, Local Businesses and Merchants. This year there will be jewelry, apparel and accessories. We have many new vendors this time around as well as some of your favorites from past years.

Stop by the Kitsap Pride Network booth for some great pride merchandise and this year’s t-shirt. The Kitsap Pride Network wants to hear from you about how else we, or one of our partner organizations, can serve the community. What is needed in Kitsap County that is not happening now? Newsletter? More activities? Your feedback is important! We’ve responded to many of your previous comments and want more input from OUR community. At the Kitsap Pride booth, there will be free rainbow friendship bracelets for the first 200 to complete our quick survey. Everyone who answers the survey will be entered in a drawing for some fun prizes.

This year our food vendors will have burgers, polish sausages, hot wings, kettle corn, funnel cakes, elephant ears, and strawberry lemonade. Plus this year we’re even adding coffee drinks and smoothies to our selection of festival food. That was just some of the highlights.

After the Pride Celebration, come to Pride Party ’08 presented by Red Star at 9PM at Bremerton Eagles just blocks away on 6th at Washington. Red Star’s generous donation, raised at their monthly event, helped to underwrite the cost of the stage.

For answers on what to bring, where to show up, how to get there and what’s going on exactly please visit Kitsap Pride’s website often at kitsappride.org.

 

Here’s something to tickle your funny bone: the Seattle Men’s Chorus interpretations of some of the funniest musical works that were (not so coincidentally) either written, directed or performed by some this country’s most hilarious gay men. On June 21st, the Seattle Men’s Chorus will treat Bremerton to Comedy Tonight – a concert of familiar works adapted from the likes of The Marx Brothers, Stephen Sondheim, Monty Python, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, and Noel Coward.
Comedy Tonight features Captain Smartypants (aka the Pants), the Seattle Men’s Chorus’ nine-man vocal comedy ensemble.  Captain Smartypants was formed in 2000 by Seattle Men’s Chorus Assistant  Artistic Director Eric Lane Barnes. They have but one goal: to make you laugh while creating exquisite harmony.

With baritones, bass-baritones and tenors in the group, “sometimes we’re a unit of nine guys, but about half the time the guys are performing as individuals,” Barnes said. “What I like is throwing new thoughts at Smartypants. As of yet, we haven’t found anything we can’t do.

Barnes spent 15 years in Chicago working in musical theater, directing and writing shows, and with ensembles for the Windy City Gay Chorus before Dennis Coleman, the artistic director of the Seattle Men’s Chorus, hired him to run Captain Smartypants   After a few tries at a name, Barnes fixed on Captain Smartypants, based on the childhood taunt, which has inevitably provoked laughs. “We do some serious things, but we’re primarily about the comedy and the theater,” Barnes said. “My style is to get the audience on your side with comedy. We don’t do anything serious in the show until we’ve got the audience laughing for a long time.”

Captain Smartypants has gained a reputation for telling it like it is, telling it like it isn’t, and telling it like it probably never will be. Part improv-comedy troupe, part a capella showcase, part vaudeville extravaganza, these boys sing and dance like the lovechild of ‘N Sync and Monty Python’s Flying Circus. 

Tom Carlisle, a “Pants” member, had been a member of Seattle Men’s Chorus on and off since 1982. To be accepted into one of the largest choral groups of its kind in the U.S. “was a huge milestone,” he said. “The chorus became my surrogate family, and that’s true with a lot of guys that join,” Carlisle said. “It not only provides a musical outlet, it provides a spiritual, emotional and social outlet.”

Comedy Tonight marks the 11th anniversary of Seattle Men’s and Women’s Chorus concerts in Bremerton, sponsored over the years by the Kitsap Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (KUUF) and other community groups.

Ann Lovell, of KUUF’s Board of Trustees, remembers “When we first started, we had to have police back stage.  For several years, we would call the police to let them know we had had some threatening phone calls so they would patrol while the chorus was here.”

“This doesn’t happen anymore.  This community is not the same because of these concerts.  Bremerton and Kitsap County are better places for gay and lesbian folks and their families. Some of that directly relates to having the choruses come and entertain everyone.”

KUUF is making special arrangements so that important parts of the community can attend Comedy Tonight.  Complimentary tickets are being distributed to peninsula Gay Straight Alliance high school groups and to the Kitsap County HIV/AIDS Foundation for clients and families infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.

About the Seattle Men’s Chorus/Seattle Women’s Chorus

Founded in 1979, the internationally renowned Seattle Men’s Chorus, along with Seattle Women’s Chorus (founded in 2002), are the largest community choruses in America; and the largest gay choruses in the world. Flying House Productions, home of Seattle Men’s Chorus and Seattle Women’s Chorus, ranks third among the state’s music organizations with over 300 members of SMC and over 200 members of SWC. Their mission is to entertain, enlighten, unify and heal our audience and members, using the power of words and music to recognize the value of gay and straight people and  their relationships.

 

The Slaughter County Roller Vixens, Kitsap’s own Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby League has signed on as a sponsor for the 2008 Kitsap Pride event.  We’re excited to have them be a part of our celebration of diversity. Check out their website or MySpace page for more information.  Read on for information about this weekends bout.

Derby Summer Bout

Date/Time: May 31, 2008
Time: Doors: 5:00pm Bout Begins: 6:00pm
Admission: Tickets
Location: Sk8Town
Street Adr: 1501  Piperberry
City: Port Orchard
Zip: 98366
Notes: Double Header featuring the Terrormedixxx vs the Rainy City Roller Dolls and the Death Rattle Rollers vs the Rockin’Roulettes.

 

TIME   Main Stage sponsored by Red Star Details 
 Noon Opening/DJ Music   
 12:20    
 12:40    
 1:00  The Royal Knights – Tacoma’s Drag Kings  www.myspace.com/theroyalknights  
 1:20    
 1:45  Inga Nova – Local Folk Musician www.myspace.com/inganova  
 2:00  Pride Committee’s Welcome   
 2:15  Guest Speakers – TBA  
 2:30  Kim Archer Band – Heavy Soul & Groove http://www.myspace.com/kimarcherband 
 3:15  Drag Queens  
 3:45    
 4:00  The Blue Mouseketeers – Tacoma’s Rocky Horror www.myspace.com/tacomarockyhorror
 4:15  Poetry Slam  
 5:00  Closing
 

Save the Date:  June 7, 2008 is our Italian Mystery Dinner.  Get tickets now. Click on Sponsor/Donate Now.

Seattle Men’s Chorus perform “Comedy Tonight” at the Admiral Theatre Saturday, June 21.  We’ll throw the after party! 

We are pleased to announce a really fabulous way to support Kitsap Pride this year.  A Murder Mystery dinner on Saturday, June 7th.  The Italian dinner will be a great way to observe Roma Pride if you can’t make it to Rome this year for their Pride event.  The Murder Mystery will provide a punch of fun and a great way to interact with friends old and new.

We chose this event to bring people together.  Many of us have heard community members express a desire to get together like we would with bingo or movie nights in the past.  It should be a fun evening and murder won’t be the only surprise on the menu.

It won’t be your Granny’s Spaghetti and Meatballs.  We’re planning a terrific and traditional meal with lot’s of flair.  More menu details to come. 

Join us for dinner on Saturday, June 7 at 7pm at the Kitsap Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 4418 Perry Ave NE  in Bremerton for this unique community event.

We have kept the price as low as possible and still hope to raise money for Kitsap Pride.  Tickets will be $20 at the door and $15 in advance.  We are expecting to sell out, so get your tickets early.  Seating is limited.

Get tickets from our volunteers, online or by sending a check to Kitsap Pride, PO Box 787, Bremerton, WA 98337.

Ciao!

View or Print the flyer here.