| LookOut
By Tim Brookover
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GOOD WORKS
Thirty years ago, the Texas Riders launched Let
Us Entertain You, a weekend of bar fun for folks
returning from New Orleans Mardi Gras. Now presented
by the Houston Council of Clubs, a consortium
of 12 leather/levi groups, the March 6-9 extravaganza
includes parties and events at six clubs, climaxing
in the March 9 "Show of Shows" at Rich's Houston.
Check out www.lueyweekend.com
for a schedule. Bob Bouton is Houston Council
of Clubs chairman, and Daddy Rose and Loyd
Powell are co-chairmen.
Thousands of striders will invade downtown on
March 9 for the 5-kilometer AIDS Walk Houston.
Kelly Rowland of Destiny's
Child will appear. Proceeds will benefit the foundation
and 13 other HIV/AIDS service organizations, including
AIDS Coalition of Coastal Texas and People With
AIDS Coalition-Houston.
Houston Area Community Services will throw
its first fundraiser on March 14. The bash at
the Warwick celebrates the fifth-year anniversary
for the organization, which provides an array
of HIV/AIDS resources. Joe C. Fuentes Jr. is
executive director.
Robbie MacIver, Ron Page,
and Jeffrey Palmer are among the lead underwriters
for Bringin' in the Silver, the Montrose Counseling
Center fundraiser on March 14 at the Magnolia
Ballroom. Yes, the annual benefit is usually dubbed
green in a nod to the usual St. Patrick's
Day time frame. The color changed this year to
honor the organization's 25th anniversary.
On March 16, the brand-new restaurant and
party space Rouge is the site of an afternoon
Kolbe Project benefit. The Plant House, the Gracely
family, and Karen Derr & Associates
Realty are underwriting this event. Founded in
1989 by two Franciscans as an HIV/AIDS outreach
group, the faith-based Kolbe Project has expanded
to include regular worship and social events.
Thomas Nitschke is executive director.
The annual Night in Black Leather bash
is the largest leather fundraising event in the
Southwest. On March 21, Los Angeles physician
Tony Mills, former International Mr. Leather
and HIV educator, will kick off the festive weekend
with his discussion "Sex, Drugs, and Hard Bodies"
at Keys West. Then a March 22 show at Rich's Houston
will feature an array of performers, among them
Daddy Wade, Regina Dane, and Clay
Howell with his special guest, Shegata
Mustache (read it aloud). Mr. International
Leather 2003 Stephen Weber will emcee,
and Mr. Texas Leather Ken Fiegel will appear.
Jim Benton, David Haynes, and Robert
Harwood are co-directors for Night in Black
Leather, presented by Don Gill. Proceeds
support Houston Buyers Club.
HOLY FATHERS!
In a doctrinal document sent sub secretum
(under secrecy) to papal representatives worldwide,
the Vatican recently ruled that transgender folk
simply do not exist. Given this antediluvian stance,
trans activists just might want to show up en
masse to tour the exhibition Saint Peter and
the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes, at the
Houston Museum of Natural Science through July
27.
Even while protesting the church's ongoing
homo- and transphobia, one can still hope that
the show includes guys clad in the riotously festive
costumes adopted by the pontiff's own manly Swiss
Guards during the reign of Julius III (1550-1555),
who once bestowed the purple (an ecclesiastical
honor) on his favorite, Innocenzo del Monte,
a 17-year-old boy who the pope had picked up on
the streets of Parma.
AN EXAMINED LIFE
Houston model, performer, and transgender
individual Leslie Townsend will sign copies of
her new autobiography, Hidden in Plain Sight
(Writers Club Press/iUniverse), at Borders River
Oaks on March 8, at 2 p.m. "I hope that my experience
through this tangled web has shed some light on
the trials and tribulations of being transgender,"
she writes. "If one person reads my story and
gains the ability to chart a course towards their
dreams, then it will have been worth it.
If you have any comments about this article,
please email them to letters@outsmartmagazine.com.
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